A Bluestocking Knits

Knitting and Crochet in Miniature

Thoughts on a Miniature Scarf Set

Published by

Bluestocking

on

7th January 2017

I found a local miniatures group, and went to my first meeting last night. I've noticed that the brick-and-mortar shops I went to when making No.16 — goodness, almost ten years ago! — are all gone now, so there are even fewer places to go for hands-on advice and help, so I thought I should set about making enquiries. This group is very welcoming and friendly, so I'm looking forward to it.

One of the regular activities is a door-prize table, where the previous winners bring something to the next meeting, and I was one of the evening's winners, as it happened, so I am on the hook for an item for next month's meeting. The very-casual rules were "under five dollars, no kits — well, and no junk"! so as I walked home afterwards I wondered what I might make, since I didn't want to buy something. I've been pondering miniature knitting anyway, having bags and bags of Paternayan wool left over from my three-times-too-much purchase for the Shirvan carpet, and then I remembered one of the books I've got, Venus Dodge's Dolls House Needlecrafts, and its chapter on miniature knitting.

After poring over it the rest of the evening, I decided on the scarf set — scarf, hat, and mittens (thumb-less, but you barely notice at this scale) — and this morning I got out the crewel wool and my 000 needles, but upon getting towards the tip of the mitten, decided that the scale was really just too big, and anyway the Paternayan comes in pre-cut strands, which are just not long enough for the mitten, so would definitely have to be spliced for the hat and scarf, and most importantly, it just looked wonky. Then I remembered the bag of Woolike from Michaels I stocked up on in a daze at their having anything finer than worsted. (Superfine! at Michaels! even though it is acrylic — superfine!) And this turned out to work very well indeed! Being extraordinarily squishy, I could use those 000s and the knitting looked great, very even and tidy, and as small as I could manage at this point in time.

The mittens are knitted flat, turned right-sides-together, and sewn up. Yes, I thought about working them in the round, but 12 sts on 000 needles … not just yet. I don't know now why mattress stitch — which I tried and picked out — didn't seem to work on this, but it didn't. Maybe the two edges didn't fold themselves under the right way? I would recommend, by the way, leaving a longish tail at the cast-on, and using that to sew up to the tip, instead of coming down the seam with the bind-off end, so that a) you don't inadvertently misalign the bottom edge (cough), and b) you don't have to weave in the ends of yarn, since they can lie invisibly inside the mitten with no-one the wiser.

I made the scarf next, such a simple piece of knitting that I entirely forgot to take a picture of it, thinking about working the hat in the round …

Which I did, and because it was 30 sts instead of 12, it was certainly more suited to that. I actually used 28 sts, since I didn't need a seam allowance.

It didn't seem like a real hat without a jolly pompom, but I couldn't see myself just gluing one on, as the instructions have it, so with almost no effort at all I found a half-dozen tutorials online about making "miniature" pompoms using a fork. Most of these are just "really small" pompoms, not dollhouse-sized, so I dug out an old child's tableware set I've got, for as small a pompom as possible.

(Look at those sharp tines! Those were the days!)

This is actually the second attempt — the first, with forty wraps, was too sparse and too loose, and the threads just slipped out. I tied the knot as tightly as I dared, but didn't want to risk the yarn breaking, so for the second attempt I not only made sixty wraps, but also used a length of sturdy buttonhole twist in addition to the length of yarn (which I kept for attaching the pompom later).

I realized in hindsight that it probably doesn't matter how big or small the fork is, since you can trim the resulting pompom as much or as little as you like, but there it is.

I wasn't at all sure that I could trim the ends of an acrylic yarn closely without it slipping out of place, so I've just left them like this, with secure knots. The color of the twist was intentional, to be honest, so that I could see it!

But these helped too. ("They come in fives? I'm getting some –")

So here is the full set, worked up in just a few hours, even with some false starts and cups of tea. The scale is a little big, I know, but it fits the brief! and I'm actually quite pleased with them. I left the fringes long and the pompom large so that the new owner can trim them to her liking.

Hurray!
Family, Sewing

Aprons, Aprons

Published by

Bluestocking

on

29th December 2016

I made two more of these aprons from my grandma's pattern, one for my sister and one for my cousin.

My sister wears mostly black, so when I saw this black-and-white floral fabric, I knew it was the one. Unfortunately, it was either not even close to 44" wide or it shrank a lot, so it wasn't nearly wide enough when it came to cutting, and so I ended up making it a little shorter in order to have some fabric to add to the circumference. Cross-grain, too, but it couldn't be helped. Luckily for me, the pattern is so busy that you can barely see the piecing!

I put the bias edging all of the way around the pockets on this version. Not entirely successful, but that was my fault, I'm pretty sure, besides being black thread on black fabric!

(These photos aren't great, but I was on my way to wrapping up the aprons when I realized I hadn't taken photos yet, and the sky was so dark with rainclouds that the only place I could get enough light was right in front of the open front door — and then it got even darker, and I had to move to the front porch! There was no way I was going to complain about it raining, believe you me.)

This one is reversible, with two bright Kaffe Fassett fabrics ("Antwerp Flowers" and "Winter Strata"). I bought an extra half-yard of the stripes so that I could lay the pattern cross-wise and have the stripes going up-and-down.

I debated with myself for a long time about whether to mix the fabrics for the pockets, and in the end I decided, yes, to put the flowers on the stripes and vice versa. Since I had extra striped fabric, I made those pockets a little bit bigger and squared-off, too, just for variety.

The button(s) perforce have to be on both sides, which necessitates two shanked buttons in the same spot, but I didn't really see any way around this, so I hope it won't be awkward. Maybe the fabrics will make up for that!
Family

Merry Christmas

Published by

Bluestocking

on

26th December 2016

Making cranberry sauce (with lime and ginger, yum!) a few days ahead.

Decorating the front door with gleaned greenery.

A new holiday table setting, with a red tablecloth and white pompom fringe.

A reindeer we got a few years ago from our favorite tree lot. I don't usually succumb, but this one has such a wonderful expression.

Gingerbread hobbit hole, with acknowledgements to the anonymous baker who made the original I got most of the ideas from, and whose photo has been copied and recopied on Pinterest without acknowledgement.

Two week's worth of to-do lists — twelve people to Christmas dinner!

"Souche" de Noël — yes, Christmas Stump Cake! Another idea pinched — did I mention twelve people to Christmas dinner?! — this one from an article in "Sunset" magazine's December issue, featuring Ashley Muir Bruhn of "Hither and Thither" and her version of the classic Christmas cake. The faux-meringue mushrooms are a delight, too — marshmallows cut in half on the diagonal, with a rolled-cookie "stem", dusted with cocoa powder, easy-peasy. My cake is a favorite butter cake, which is even better a day or two after baking — did I mention twelve people to Christmas dinner?!

And then some lovely peace and quiet, sitting beside the Christmas tree.
Blankets, Throws, and Afghans

Big Bad Bisected

Published by

Bluestocking

on

23rd December 2016

I reached the halfway point of the wool, by weight, the other day. I had already decided, because, really, there is a little too much for me to do this week to devote enough time to knitting to finish the blanket by Christmas — but this was really only a sort of over-achiever's goal, so I'm not particularly disappointed. The house will be clean and ready for the next round of parties over New Year's — which are potluck! — and I will therefore have lots of time to just sit and enjoy the knitting!

(I know, I know, "bisect" implies cutting or dividing, neither of which I'm literally doing here, of course, but there aren't many synonyms for "halfway" that begin with "b"! "Bifurcate"? "Betwixt"?)
Blankets, Throws, and Afghans

Big Bad Backtrack

Published by

Bluestocking

on

14th December 2016
Blankets, Throws, and Afghans

Big Bad Boogaloo

Published by

Bluestocking

on

11th December 2016

Well, I'm not going to get over-confident here, but this thing's going at a cracking pace so far!

The two center sections are now exactly the same height as width, so it is decision time — I will obviously have more yarn than what would make four perfect squares, because out of a 226g ball I have used only 56 (!!) to this point, at which in the pattern the stockinette is reversed, the knit side switching to purls and the purl side to knits.

So should I make rectangles instead of squares, and just keep going to the halfway point of the yarn (which I would be able to estimate by the weight of a remaining ball), or start again and make it wider …
“Booking Through Thursday”, Books and Reading

Back to “Booking Through Thursday,” on Friday

Published by

Bluestocking

on

9th December 2016

Booking Through Thursday asks this week,

"What’s your guilty pleasure, reading-wise?"

Well, it has been a very long time since I took part in the BTT meme — so long that "meme" actually has a different meaning than it did then. Good heavens! (It used to have, of course, more the "activity" part of Wikipedia's definition, questions that would get passed along from blogger to blogger (or the platform's equivalent), whereas now my fourteen-year-old rolls her eyes when I use the word in that sense, since to her it means something like the infamous "what are those?" video. This makes me feel quite decrepit. Sheesh, it was only, what, less than ten years ago! But I digress.) I got distracted from the regular Thursday question, and skipped a few, then I fell out of the habit, then … who knows? But I thought of it again this morning, and it's still going on — hurray, Deb! — so I'll try to get back into taking part regularly.

Guilty pleasures? I'm afraid that reading itself has been my guilty pleasure the last few years. I should be doing housework, gardening, exercising, spending quality time with my rapidly-growing-independent children, etc. etc. etc., and however much I laugh and say, "oh, goodness, yes, I'd rather be reading than doing housework any day!" it still does make me feel guilty when I do. Just this morning, I was lingering over breakfast and The Return of the King — Merry is wandering around an evening camp of the Rohirrim feeling useless, and lonely without Pippin — instead of addressing Christmas cards or starting a load of laundry or picking out yet more of that dratted false garlic from our so-called garden, with the excuse that I was still sitting at the breakfast table and that means I'm still having breakfast, right?!

But I have the feeling that this wasn't quite what the question meant, so —

When I had lots of time to read whatever I liked, and thus the luxury to "waste" time on guilty pleasures, I think that Barbara Michaels was one of my chief purveyors of such. I know she isn't as trashy as some — well, not by a long shot! — but I have given up sticking with a badly-written book, so my definition of "trash" is now more along the lines of the plotline or degree of melodrama! Michaels wrote well, of course, and had an excellent ear for dialogue, so her books are unquestionably intelligent and readable — it's just perhaps the glee with which she spins off reams of gothic suspense and supernatural elements and romance and glamorous international settings (or murky domestic ones!) that makes her books so enjoyable and yet so firmly in the "guilty pleasures" category!
Blankets, Throws, and Afghans

Big Bad Beginning

Published by

Bluestocking

on

7th December 2016

On your mark …

get set …

go!
Blankets, Throws, and Afghans, Books and Reading, Miniature Needlework

Drop Everything

Published by

Bluestocking

on

6th December 2016

Some time ago, I decided to make an afghan as a house-warming/Christmas gift for my brother-in-law and his wife, who have recently moved into their first house. Being an architect, I thought she would appreciate the simple-yet-effective structure of the Big Bad Baby Blanket, and so after no little subterfuge and maneuvering, I found that an olive or a pistachio green would be most appreciated. I was willing to splurge on Koigu, which is the yarn the blanket was designed for, but there really aren't that many of the quieter colorways, and surprisingly few greens, and so I began to look for alternatives. Thanks to the very handy list at Yarnsub.com, I found that Blue Moon's Gaea fingering weight is highly recommended as an alternative, and because of the great yardage, I would need only two skeins instead of eight of the Koigu! This last seemed so astonishing that I did the math four or five times, and came up with the same answer every time —

but they really are enormous, and so I ordered two skeins of Jade. Unfortunately, it was back-ordered for some weeks, and arrived only yesterday evening. It's a little more lime than jade, to my eye, but there it is, I am feeling optimistic. So now I must drop everything and knit like a madwoman to have it ready by Christmas — that's,

another miniature carpet, this one the "Greek-Style Georgian" from Sue Hawkins' book Dolls House DIY : Carpets and Rugs, the wool for which I ordered when I had to get another skein of red for the Memling Bergama, so as not to waste six dollars of shipping fees on one two-dollar skein of crewel wool, and what do you know, the blue is not nearly going to be enough, even though I am working at exactly the same gauge and with the same brand and quantity of wool listed in the book, gaah! (I should have bought a hank, not a skein, I knew it …) — and,

a wristwarmer in the Blue-faced Leicester I scored at Tuesday Morning some time ago, which is now in its fourth or fifth incarnation since I haven't been pleased enough with the gauge/hand/pattern/fit of what I've tried so far — and,

His Bloody Project, of which I read a review in the LA Times book section on Sunday. I tend to stay away from the more sordid, grim stories lately — there is enough of that in real life — but the review made it sound very intriguing, and lo and behold, the public library not only had it but it was actually on the shelf, so it only cost me the trouble of walking a block and a half. I think I will not completely drop the book in favor of the blanket, of course, since I have to return the book fairly promptly, and I am in fact almost two-thirds along already, so it's moving at a terrible clip, though as the reader already knows that there is a multiple murder and that the young man who narrates much of the book is the one who committed it, it is not unlike watching a train heading for a washed-out bridge, just waiting for it all to come inevitably crashing down.

Yes, the Gaea skein is really 1024 m. That's two and a half times around a sports track. That's three circuits of a baseball diamond. That's almost fifteen times the wingspan of a 747. Not a single knot, either. It's deliciously soft, and that's a very good thing, as it took me hours and hours to wind one skein — or so it felt — and by the time I was not even close to the end of winding, I could barely hold the ball, it was so big. I was thinking as I wound of taking photos with various ordinary objects for scale, and I was even tempted to go to the market for a head of cabbage or iceberg lettuce, since it's just about the same size and color — really! — but here's just one to give you an idea!
Sewing

Turning a Shirt Collar

Published by

Bluestocking

on

28th November 2016

A post from completely cauchy partly about handwork and enjoying the experience of the process of making — cooking, needlework, sewing — made me remember the shirts hanging on the back of our bedroom door, waiting for me to turn the collars. David is rather hard on his shirts, his work “with computers” being only partly a desk job — often he is instead out in the field, crawling behind hardware racks, up ladders, under dolly track, &c. &c. &c. Sometimes he’ll come home and say, “Sorry, honey,” with a tear in the middle of his (new!!) shirt, but more often it’s just the collar that gets worn down over time. For a while, I was just saying “oh well!” and cutting the perfectly-good remaining fabric into squares for a quilt-to-be, but then I realized that I could turn the collars, as women have done for decades if not longer, to extend the lives of their menfolks’ shirts. (Now, I realize that this might make me sound like one of those ultra-conservative wife-stays-at-home women, and I’m actually quite liberal and feminist, but I also happen to be one of those lucky ones who can still afford to stay home with the kids, and so I think it’s only fair that I economize where I can. It also doesn’t come quite naturally to me to do so, to be honest, but that’s all the more reason to reassure anyone who stops by here that it isn’t difficult to turn a shirt collar, and why not take half an hour to save yourself twenty bucks, and reduce your carbon footprint while you’re at it?!)

I hadn’t done this for a while, so I looked up a tutorial or two the other day, and was saddened to find a number of comments on boards and whatnot saying, “it’s too hard!” or “ugh, I just buy a new shirt”. It’s not hard at all — and I am still what I consider to be an advanced beginner at sewing, or maybe a beginning intermediate, so if I think it’s easy, it really is. For some reason, I find this a lot less trouble than setting a collar in a new shirt — maybe the fact that the fabric is already used to being a collar, as it were — so if that’s putting you off, don’t let it. The only thing you really do need is a sewing machine, as while it certainly can be done without one, I wouldn’t call it a simple matter then, unless perhaps you’re a re-enactor! and used to stitching miles and miles of seams by hand.

I haven’t seen the extra step of pinning both sides of the collar in other tutorials or instructions, but I’ve found it very helpful, myself.

How to Turn a Shirt Collar

You can’t turn collars with sewn-in stays or with pockets on the underside for removable stays, but you can certainly turn plain ones that look the same on front and back, including button-down collars. Some higher-end shirts draft the collar with a slightly narrower piece of fabric on the underside, so that the collar curves subtly around the neck when worn, but most mid-range dress shirts can certainly have their collars turned with good results. It is not difficult, even for a determined beginner, and takes less than a half-hour!

You can also turn worn sleeve cuffs the same way, but you will have to do both cuffs, and switch the left and right cuffs when you turn them inside out, so that the buttons and holes will be facing the “right” way!

Carefully pick out the existing stitches, using a seam ripper. Start at least an inch or so from the end of the collar, and work on the outside of the collar stand, the part that is covered when the collar is folded, and aiming the ripper towards the stand, so that if the ripper slips, the right-side-to-be of the collar doesn’t get damaged.

There may be two lines of original stitching, the seam and a line of top-stitching — don’t try to pick out the top-stitching first, as this is crazy-making. Just winkle out a stitch or two from the seam itself — once you get an inch or so open, it will go much easier. If it helps, go ahead and pick out some of the top-stitching first.

There will probably be a line of basting stitches, which you can see in this photo, basting together the two sides of the collar and its interfacing — leave these in place. You don’t need to worry about accidentally picking them out, as they are usually far enough away from the seam you are ripping.

Once you have ripped out a good section, work back in the other direction until you just release the end of the collar from the stand. Having this point still secured will help you to center the flipped collar back into the stand evenly.

Clean off any remaining loose threads, and flip over the collar so that the worn part will be underneath when the collar is folded down.

Pin the collar back into place, between the two sides of the stand, matching up the original line of stitches. Start with a pin at each end, then another pin at each end, working your way towards the center back, making sure that the collar is completely flat and smooth in the stand. Pin through just the side of the stand facing you, and the collar, with the pins about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Now turn the shirt over and pin the other side, again catching just the side of the stand facing you and the collar, with a pin between the pins on the other side — this will help keep everything in place as you sew, without bunching up multiple layers of fabric and interfacing in every pin.

Sew along the original line of stitching, taking your time, and making sure to catch all three layers – inner band, collar, and outer band. Back stitch at each end, where the stress on the collar is greatest.

Press thoroughly with lots of steam.

The turned collar may not lie exactly the same as it did before for a while, because the fabric on the original underside has been curved in one direction for the life of the shirt, and now you are curving it in the other direction, but it will settle down, certainly after a few washings. The wrinkles in the original underside, which you can see in the above photo, will smooth out now that the underside is the new outside (and, yes, the new underside will probably develop some wrinkles of its own now!).

Enjoy the extended life of your shirt!