New Neighbors! Just in time...

 Here are some new neighbors down the street! 

It really tickles me to see the efforts of the actual neighbors who entertain us all with their "friends".  Every month for more than a year they have showcased somone.

Easy Lined Fat Quarter Zipper Pouch

 Here is a lined fat quarter zipper pouch.  Very easy to make.

This small bag was made with a fat quarter of quilting cotton and a 22' zipper that I cut down.  

Here is the bag open so you can see that it is completely lined, and, in fact, also has not raw seam edges.  

Some day I will write up a tutorial post.  I might even try to make a tutorial episode on The Country Wife From Vermont YouTube channel...but that might be a little while.

This is the first time I have made a "project bag" from a fat quarter.  I am delighted that it worked.  The finished dimensions are 7.25 by 9.5".  It also has a little non-boxed boxy bottom.  When I make another post I will put in a picture of that boxy bit.

Cotton Bolls?

 Today I went on a quick ministering visit--quick because I just handed over a project bag, zippered vinyl tools bag, yarn cakes, and crocheting instruction book (all bags which I made and was pretty happy with them)  at the door--and along the way I saw several fields with cotton bolls popping open. This is the first time I have been in a safe place to stop the car and take a photo.  I do get rather a charge out of fields of cotton.  Some year I might, possibly, try to learn to spin cotton.  My first attempt last year was pitiful.  I am afraid I might have annoyed the teacher by being so unreceptive to trying again after abysmal failure!

Don't you think those are beautiful?!  A whole field as far as the eye can see is very impressive.  It is still a few weeks from harvest I think.

Pumpkin Spice Crocheted Pumpkins

 It has been a long time since I wrote a blog post. I am sorry.  I have written some in my head but never got to the keyboard.  Life, you know?!  I expect you are just as busy.  Last week on The Country Wife From Vermont YouTube channel I spoke of things coming to a head with a need to let some things drop off.  I am sort of doing that.  At least I am deciding to let some things become lower priority. I feel like that will help me regain my sanity...and even improve my health!

In the meantime, it is now Fall.  Fall is pumpkin season. And apple season.  Here are some crocheted pumpkins I recently made.  They still need their stems but they will come soonish, I think.

These pumpkins have the same number of stitches in them, just different thickness of yarns  (worsted weight and super bulky weight) and different size hooks...5 mm and 10 mm hooks.  You will likely turn up your nose at the colors...I do. I don't know why I chose those yarns...oh well.  I think maybe crocheting with a single yarn might be better. I have one of those on the hook currently but I started with one size hook and then appear to have changed size hook...making a very funky looking piece of work.

This pattern is a Brianna K Designs pattern.  She gives it out for free on her blog but if you want the pattern stripped down to just the pattern and not a hundred advertisements, it is available on Ravelry.com.  If you go there you will note that it says the pattern is also available for free...info in notes.

For these pumpkins I crocheted 19 chain stitches  to start and went from there...with 9 of the wheat stitch panels.  This is a very easy pattern once you get the hang of it.  When working with one color at the beginning I did get off track but now having successfully crocheted two of them, I believe I will be able to stay on track with succeeding ones!  Give them a try.

Stovetop Lichen Dyeing!

 The last batch of lichen that a dear friend harvested for me has been used!  Since I have a jar of lichen fermenting in ammonia on the deck I decided to try stovetop dyeing with lichen.  I am so happy with the results!

Here you can see two bits of Lonk sheep fiber.  The one on the back was stovetop dyed with white mushrooms.  Made a nice light creamy beige color.  Not really impressive.  The front fiber, however, makes me very happy!  It was dyed with lichen.  I am pretty sure I mordanted with cold water alum then, after heating the lichen to simmering for an hour, letting it sit overnight to cool, then added the fiber.  I brought the fiber up to simmering for an hour then shut off the heat and let it sit overnight.  This glorious color is what I found when I pulled it out of the dyebath.  I think I will try again and see if an exhaust bath works!

The Finest Kind Sweater Designed by Alicia Plummer is Coming Along!

In a past blog post I think I mentioned that Dear One asked me to make him the Finest Kind Sweater.  I have been working two or more rounds a day for all summer.  Finally yesterday I finished the right front section and worked a three-needle bind off to put the two shoulders together.  The first try I managed to bind off both fronts together instead of binding a right front to a right back etc.  Oh well.  So I took that bind off out and did it properly the second time!

Next thing to do was to knit the collar which I did when we came home from the FamilySearch Center.  We had patrons in the Center last night and enjoyed helping them.

Here is a photo of the shoulders stitched together correctly.  Dear One tried it on and the sweater fits!

Here is the collar.  Not a great design in my view but that is what is called for so I did it.  Finished it late last night.  No ends woven in yet.  

Hopefully today I will start picking up stitches for the first sleeve...

Crochet with Knitted Borders Baby Floor Mat

 Lately I have been making baby floor mats.  These are "blankets" that are not large enough to wrap around a baby but which are perfect for putting on the floor and laying a baby down on to have a space between baby and floor.  I have made several.  This time I started making a crocheted rectangular blanket but found my hands wore out way before the blanket was big enough.  At that point I decided to add some knitted borders.

The first set of knitted borders was a disaster!  The first problem was that I tried to do a mitered corner.  It was late in the day and I was not thinking.  Mitered squared DECREASE at one corner so decreasing at four corners was the wrong thing to do.  Next I had added two stitches at each corner on either side of the actual corner stitch.  This made a TERRIBLE corner!  

After working five colors of knitted bands and knowing absolutely that it did not work, I pulled all those knit stitches out back to the crocheted rectangle and picked up stitches again.  This time I only added one stitch at each corner. It is not ideal but it worked out sort of okay.  Well enough that I am going to give it to the new baby this week.

Tomorrow I will make this baby floor mat one of the finished objects I speak of on my YouTube channel video. In case you are interested, that channel is The Country Wife From Vermont.  I will see if I can link the channel here.

As you can see from this photo, which is poor I will agree, but also there are issues.  One thing I did learn from this project is that when you are knitting garter stitch blankets and you are starting a new color, you absolutely must add the new color at the right side of the project.  Otherwise you will get colored blips where you do not want them! Oh, well. I have a pretty high tolerance for error.  Especially if fit is not an issue.  You can see the light blue blips on the first dark blue garter ridge round.