Do It Yourself

This has been the most fun I’ve had in ages. A cardigan that knits itself! It’s been such a weird experience. It started out, as I posted previously with a yarn that I bought over in Bloomington, intending it for a shawl or stole. I had the inspiration of the simple lace pattern (see Wednesday's post) so I started a wide stole (120 stitches on US size 8/5mm needles). I’d only done a few rows when I realized that it wasn’t a stole, it was a lacy cardigan. It was just the right size for the back. I knitted on, well, I say knitted, I really just held the needles. It really sort of knitted itself. I said I would keep “down and dirty” notes so you can try it if you’d like.

When I’d knitted far enough (12 inches/30 yo holds), I bound off 3 stitches on either side. From there, I decreased 1 stitches each side until the raglan sleeves were long enough and I did a basic shaping for the back neck, leaving 21 stitches on either shoulder.

I made both front pieces at the same time so I could make sure they were identical. I casted on 60 stitches and worked even until they matched the back (12 inches/30 yo holes) and then shaped the sleeves exactly as I’d done for the back. When they were at 38 yo holes, I shaped the neck like this:

On the last row before I was going to bind off at the neck edge, I knitted the 10 stitches of the neck edge on each side (I didn’t do to the lace pattern). On the next pass, I bound off 8 stitches on each neck edge then decreased 1 stitch at neck edge and armhole edge every other row until there were about 21 stitches (to match the back shoulders). I did a 3 needle bind-off to join the front and back and give it a little structure to keep it from stretching too much.

I also sewed the side seams to make sure it was going to fit okay. Actually, it would have worked nicely as a vest but I don’t like to wear vests so it was on to the sleeves.

Sleeves – Again, I did them together so I would know they were the same, working off of 2 skeins of yarn. I cast on 40 stitches and worked in pattern for 1 inch. Then I started increasing 1 stitch on either side every other row 8 times, then every 4th row 7 times. Then I worked even until it was time to start the sleeve. I worked the shaping exactly as I did for the back until there were 20 stitches left (or so). This fit was a little tricky and I measured against the armhole as I went to make sure I didn’t make it too large. I sewed the sleeve seams and then sewed the sleeves onto the body.

And that’s it! I absolutely love it and it fits perfectly. The large size needles and the open stitch pattern make this go super fast.

Blueberry Bread Pudding
I've been trying out another vintage recipe. This time it’s been a blueberry bread pudding from the July 1925 Needlecraft magazine. So easy, so delicious.

Here’s the recipe:

“Pick the stale bread over into tiny pieces, the smaller the better it will be, until you have two cupfuls (I used a container of bread crumbs which worked great). Then put into a saucepan one cupful of milk and two tablespoonfuls of butter. If you live in the country and have plenty of cream, use fairly thin cream instead of milk and omit the butter. Bring to the boiling-point and pour over the bread crumbs. Let it stand for fifteen minutes. Then press the softened bread with a fork, tearing into still smaller bits until the mixture looks more like a rather rough custard. This not absolutely necessary, but it makes the pudding softer and nicer. Now add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and two well beaten eggs and one heaping cupful of blueberries. Pour into a pudding dish and bake. (I baked it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.) Serve hot with hard sauce or cold with cream.”

It would also be nice with this blueberry sauce (from the same magazine):

“Mix two cupfuls of blueberries with one cupful of cold water. Let them come to a boil and then stew slowly until the water is half gone, and the berries soft enough to rub through a sieve with a flat strainer.”


State Fair Entries
One other thing is that I've had several people ask about entering things into the State Fair. Each state will have a different procedure but you can find instructions by search for the state fair website in your state. In Illinois, the address is here. Click on the Competition tab and you'll want to look for the "Premium Book" for the General Competitions. Of course, you won't be able to see the Premium Book now since the fair is finished but they'll post it in March/April 2009. Section M is the Textiles section and you'll then be able to see instructions for entering and the categories. You'll need to complete the entry form and send it in with the fee before the middle of July. It's only $1 per entry so I chose a wide number of categories which gave me some leaway as to what I was going to enter without getting caught at the end. You don't have to enter everything you have tags for. They will send the tags that you'll need to attach to your piece and that's it. Just follow the directions for when to take them or send them in and you're set. Most categories allow you to enter up to 2 items. Have fun and enter lots of stuff!

State Fair

The Illinois State Fair kicked off this week and my work to get some things entered paid off.

I entered a few things in the Illinois State Fair this year and was very excited to win several categories. There were 2 things which won big. One was the Skrå-Trøyer (Danish) Sweater which won first place in both the Scandanavian section and the Sewing with Wool. It also won the purple champion rosette for the best garment and for best wool construction.

The other was the Miser’s Purse which won the blue ribbon for best crocheted purse and it won the purple rosette for best purse and the silver platter for best in the division. I liked it but I really didn’t expect this. I’m guessing part of the reason it won was because it was so unusual.

There were a couple of other things that placed. It was really difficult to get good photos in the cases so I've used my file photos.

A knitted doily - 3rd place (the other one didn’t get a look in):

A knitted purse (second place):

Another crocheted (reticule) purse - second place:

A baby outfit - second place:

They did a much better job this year of displaying all of the entries and there were some wonderful things entered in all of the categories. I was amazed at some of the stuff. But I have to say, the cutest thing in the whole show, for my money was a wall hanging that didn't even place in it's category. It was a quilted wall hanging of an underwater scene and it was so cute that I had to go back and look at it 3 times!

The shame was that, the way it was hung, you can barely see one of the cutest aspects (see the little frog's leg?):

State Fair

I've been cruising along thinking I needed to get my things out for the State Fair because it's coming up. Look at me cruising along and almost missing the whole thing (not like it's the first time that's happened). I did start pulling things out last night but was going to work on tagging, etc. this week, mistakenly thinking that I had to have them in on Friday. I just happened to look at my sheet this morning on the way out the door and discovered that they were actually supposed to be in yesterday or today!! It's just as well I have such a nice boss who let me take some time this morning to take care of it.

I had to mount the doilies on light card (which meant a trip to Hobby Lobby) and a hunt for all the staples in the house and then attach labels to all the items. I had 7 entries this year, mostly purses and doilies (and one very treasured Danish sweater).

I finished my Mom's gloves because I was going to enter them but I didn't get the 5x5 sample I would have needed to submit them for the category I was going to enter them into. Never mind, I finished them and am very proud (although tired of the pattern) of them.

I got many of my dyed skeins of yarn balled but I did also get another batch dyed. The Jacquard dyes come in a deep purple that's very exciting. I did 2 skeins of sock yarn and 1 of lace weight with the purple but I think I'm going to put them in one more time - there were some imperfections in the color of the sock yarn and the lace weight didn't get quite dark enough for me. I experimented by putting the 2 skeins of sock yarn in the bottom of the pan so they would have most access to the color and then put the lace weight on the top, with some of it barely in the water. I did like the way the lace weight took on the dye inconsistently so that there are quite a lot of color variations but I don't know if I can live with the lighter purple color. See what you think.


I also decided I like the "desert sunset" yarn and balled it before getting a photo but I'm going to do a gauge swatch to show the colors and will post a pic when I get that done.

Oh, yes, word to the wise. While it's a good idea to buy kool-aid when it's on sale, it can get hard if stored for a long time. It will melt in the water but it takes some attention when mixing before putting the yarn in. Voice of experience.