Author Archive

April 11th, 2012

Knitted Bow Ties

by Christina

One of the things that I remember about my childhood Easters are new dresses. My dad didn’t allow us to participate in Easter egg hunts or have  Easter baskets but my mom, for whom Easter egg hunts and baskets were a part of her childhood,  would always try to make us new dresses and a hat for Easter Sunday.

My favorite was a pink calico dress with little lace trim and a straw hat with a matching ribbon.

When was out on my own I would buy myself a new hat for Easter. (Yes, I adore hats.)

Now that I have my own little guy not only do I plan an Easter egg hunt for him and the cousins and an Easter basket but a new little something to wear is a must.

This year I made a little cotton vest and matching bow tie. The bow tie was sooooo much fun to make and hardly took anytime at all I plan on making a few more for Sundays. ( Lil J wore my outfit for Palm Sunday and an outfit his grandma purchased for him for Easter Sunday. But I did go ahead and make another tie for his Easter outfit. They are too much fun to make. )

toddler knit vest and bowtie

I thought you all would have fun making them for your little ones so here is the pattern:

Bow Tie
Berroco Weekend i.e. cotton worsted weight yarn
US #7 needles
Tapetry needle
safety pin to secure neckband at back of collar

Co 10 sts.
Row 1: K
Row 2: K
Row 3: K
Row 4: K2, p6, k2
Repeat rows 3 &4 until piece measure 4″ from co edge to needles.
Row 5: K
Row 6: K
Row 7: K
Row 8: Bo in purl

Bow Tie Center
Co 3 sts and work 6 rows of garter stitch, bo 3 sts.

Neckband
co 3 sts and work in garter stitch for 11 – 12″ (depending on the collar size of your little one)

Using the tapestry needle and a piece of cotton, sew a running stitch up the center of the bow tie to gather it. Wrap the Bow tie center around the gathered section and sew the bow tie center together at the back. Find the mid point of the neck band and sew it onto the bow tie in the back. Steam lightly with a steam iron.

Note: the vest is my own pattern. If you are looking for a good substitute try Summer Vest by Tot Toppers

JK is reading me The Girl with a Pearl Earring while I knit at night. I’ve enjoyed it so far. I can relate to the descriptions of washing and ironing and scrubbing. Why do I find it so comforting to know that those menial tasks are so normal and have been part of life for centuries? We’ll see though… I am getting the feeling that the book is going to take a turn and I’m not going to like what is around the next corner.

Joining with Ginny

 

April 11th, 2012

Easter Celebrations

by Christina

For some reason I can never manage to host an event, take pictures and blog about it. Perhaps that skill of juggling everything will come to me one day. For now I’m just grateful for a sister who takes wonderful pictures and wrote a beautiful blog piece on the Easter dinner party I just hosted.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of rejoicing and family.

I’m savoring the memories of the wonderful day.

I’m also savoring the fact that I go all the napkin rings made. Hooray!

 

 

 

 

March 28th, 2012

Spring Napkin Rings

by Christina

The family Easter dinner will be celebrated at my house this year. It’s always something fun to plan. Really it’s the first dinner party of the summer season.

This year I decided to have some “crafty” decorations. Well, to be honest, I am still finding inspiration from the original flower I made for the Mom’s Beads pattern. 

spring knitted decoration

This time I decided to use the basic flower to decorate napkin rings. They are so easy to make. I’ve been making them while I watch Lil John play outside. 

Here’s the pattern:

You will need
US #7 needles – you can use straight, 2 dpns, circ – whatever you desire
US #1 needles – again you can use whatever you deisre, straight, circ, dpns
Worsted weight green cotton or wool 
Sock yarn in bright colors – pink, blue, white, yellow
Assorted small buttons
tapestry needle

 For the ring:
With the US #7 needle and the worsted weight green, co 6 stitches, knit 34 rows, bo leaving a long tail.

Sew the piece together using a tapestry needle, (end to end) to form a ring.

Next make a flower:

Small Flower:
Using a US #1 (2.25mm) , leaving a 4″ tail, cast on 3 sts.
Row 1, 3, 5, 7: P
Row 2: K1, yo, k1, yo, k1. (5 sts)
Row 4: K2, yo, k1, yo, k2. (7 sts)
Row 6: K3, yo, k1, yo, k3. (9 sts)
Row 8: K
Row 9: K
Row 10: BO in p.
Make 4 petals. Sew petals together, one over lapping the next, using the yarn tails and a tapestry needle. Wet block and pin into shape. Sew button into the center of the 4 petals.
Make the following number of small flowers: 3 white, 2 pink & 3 yellow.
Using a tapestry needle, weave in ends.

Now all you need to do is sew the flower to the ring. I made sure to sew my flowers to the ring where I had sewed the ring together so the seam did not show.

It get’s rather addicting to make the flowers  - I need to make 17!

happy knitting!

March 24th, 2012

Small Things Giveaway

by Christina

Rain was trickling through the branches of our beautiful pear tree this morning as I made the family’s morning pot of oatmeal.

It is breathtaking in it’s garments of simple white flowers.

Last night we ate dinner out on the deck. Little white petals showered down upon us, sometimes sprinkling our food, other times falling at our feet.
“Is it snowing?” Lil John asked. How sweet! Yes, it was “snowing” spring snow – petals and the heavy scent of blooms.

I love the simplicity of childhood – it’s full of discovery and imagination.

I hope you all have a very relaxing weekend. Lil John has a terrible cough and runny nose so we plan to stay put and read lots of books.

If you are looking for some “free” patterns hop on over to Small Things. There’s a giveaway. And… if you don’t want to wait to find out if you won the giveaway there is a 25% off coupon for any CCKnits pattern purchase (only through the weekend)

happy knitting!

PS: for those of you who read the Small Things interview with me and are wondering about my mom and sister’s talent you can find them here and here. We’ve finally banded together to start a new project which you can see here!

March 20th, 2012

Warm weather knitting

by Christina

cotton linen yarn

All this warm weather so early in the year has made me question what in the world will it be like in August. I almost feel like going on a hunt for Australian blogs so that I can find out what they do during the warm weather months.

One thing is for sure. I am going to need light weight cardigans for the rest of “spring” and for those chilly airconditioned buildings that seem to pop up everywhere once the heat gets into full swing.

cotton linen yarn

Don’t you find it hilarious that we have to have summer sweaters for “conditioned” air? It’s just such a mind twister. Oh, well. Apparently the world is more productive since the invention of air conditioning.

So I have turned my attention to knitting with some lovely lightweight yarns. Grass, by Plymouth is a lovely cotton and hemp blend that feels cool against your skein. It’s okay to knit with – in other words it feels a little hempy, but it drapes and wears so well it’s worth a little bit of roughness.

We’ll see how it turns out!

 

March 19th, 2012

Spring has arrived

by Christina

spring gardens

spring gardens

spring gardens

Hello Friends!

Spring has arrived in full force in central Indiana. It’s been absolutely amazing and several weeks early.

Yesterday we got out for our weekend walk and wandered among the gardens at our favorite summer haunt.

It’s been a favorite place to go in spring and see what is blooming. I dream of having an amazing garden like the Lilly gardens one day. Perhaps one day…

today I’ve been really busy in the garden but really don’t have anything beautiful to show you. My dad wanted to get rid of all of his daffodils in his front garden so John and I spent the morning digging them up so that we can replant them in our garden.

I know, wrong time of year to replant daffodils. But, oh, well. We’ll see if it works!

Now I’m stopping for a little tea and knitting before my little wee man gets up and we’re back to gardening!

ta-ta for now!

C

March 15th, 2012

308 Maple Street

by Christina

 

Hello, Friends!

Today I have a brilliant new online shop to tell you about. It is 308 Maple Street and is a co-op of sorts of (at this point) four different artists selling their handmade items.

One of the things I really miss about shopping online is the personal flavor and feel of a physical brick and mortar shop. You know – how the shop owner sets up the shop and displays various items. How you can pick up the items and look at them a little more closely. The one frustrating thing about a physical shop is you don’t often get to hear how the item came about or what inspiration sparked the flame in the artist to create the item you are looking at.

308 Maple Street combines  the look and feel of a physical shop with the detail and story of the item you often get on handmade sites.

So go ahead, browse through the shop and it’s various rooms. Perhaps you’ll find a bit of beauty for you and your home!

 

Please note that 308 does not take any commission or charge the artists any fee. All proceeds from the sale of the items listed go directly to the individual artists.

March 15th, 2012

Whimsy

by Christina

cashmere lace shawl for spring

hello friends!

I hope you are all doing well in your various corners of the world.

We have been enjoying amazing weather this week. Absolutely fantastic weather for March. It’s nearly 80 F here today. The windows are open, the birds are singing and the leaves are popping!

cashmere lace shawl for spring

It is the perfect time to show you what I have been knitting.

For the March newsletter pattern I designed a very whimsical lace wrap that is embellished with appliqued knitted flowers. For my shawl I went with bright colors – persimmon, lemon, kiwi, rose and white – but for a more subdued version you could do cream on white or white on green.

cashmere lace shawl for easter

I used Anzula Cloud which had been gifted to me by my sister after a trip she took to NYC. Isn’t it fun when the yarn itself has a bit of a story to it? It is a lovely cashmere/merino blend with just a touch of nylon to add durability and strength. The cashmere makes the shawl soft and whisper like to the touch. But don’t worry, the shawl is knit using a #4 needle – you don’t have to dig out the teeny-tiny needles.

The appliqued flowers are so much fun to knit. I just grabbed a bunch of my stash yarn and went to town. In fact, I made a few extra flowers – wonder what I shawl do with them.

For those of you who receive my newsletter you have a 50% coupon to apply to this pattern making it just $2.00.
For those of you who haven’t yet subscribed – you should!

You can buy the pattern here

tomorrow I have a new online shop to introduce to you!

 

March 8th, 2012

A Party

by Christina

Hello, friends!

I’ve been away for too long! I am so sorry. Life has been a bit of a whirlwind around here. If you read my sister’s blog you’ve already heard about the event that has taken me away from this space and from knitting for just a little bit.

I had to laugh yesterday. While I was flat on my back without one little dot of energy (except the energy pots and pots of coffee will give you) she already had a blog post up. Ha! You could tell the party mess began and ended at my house!

I won’t try to tell about the event here – you’ll just have to read Heather’s account. It was so much fun to organize and do. The hardest thing was to keep it a secret from Emily – but somehow that was accomplished.

I’m still trying to recover from the whirlwind – John and I spent the morning doing laundry (all those lovely white tablecloths) and cleaning up the garage (where I dumped everything when I came home).

the funniest picture of the event is my little Honda Fit all packed and ready to turn a room into an event!

I’ll be back soon with some knitting news!

Get ready!

March 2nd, 2012

Little Worlds

by Christina

I have been invited to attend a terrarium party tomorrow. Isn’t that exciting? I’m really looking forward to it. So much so that I’ve been talking about it rather a lot this week. Funny, isn’t it… things that you are excited about tend to get a lot of “talk time.”

But I have learned some very interesting things. When I told my mother about my excitement she said, “Oh, yes. I used to make terrariums. My Aunt always had a large terrarium on the coffee table and it was quite interesting to watch it grow.”

When the warm weather brought us all out of our houses this past week, my neighbor and I stood chatting on the sidewalk in the sunshine. I mentioned that I was going to a terrarium party on Saturday and she mentioned, “Oh, my mother was always so good at terrariums and usually had one around the house. She would get tree frogs and place them in the arrangements. ”

I thought it was rather interesting to hear about the terrarium experiences of others. But all this talk made me really, really eager to go to this terrarium party and make my own…. so eager that, well, I gave in to my whims and put together a “make do” terrarium. “Just until I make my real terrarium.” I said to myself.

John and I pulled on our rubber boots, gathered a cake stand with a dome and a trowel and marched off to the mossiest spot of our yard. He loved digging in the dirt for a moment but then found some sticks to play with until he went on a hunt for Pooh Bear and Piglet in the woods. I contented myself to arranging bits of moss and stone until I had something that looked decent.

And now our “Made-do” terrarium is sitting on my kitchen table, basking in the sunshine. John and I peer at it during meal times, wondering what will grow, what will blossom and what it will become.

Now I can’t wait to make my “real one”.