Flagel Knitting Files

While I was home I decided to record a couple of the things Mom knits to share.  Mom is reluctant to be put on stage herself showing her work, however, was OK.  But before we get to her output I should talk about how she taught me to knit. Mom can crochet but much prefers to knit.  She taught me to knit in the same way she taught me to do many things like cooking or sewing.  She would get me started with all the tools I needed, give me some books to help me if I got hung up and then left me alone.  I found this to be the perfect way for me to learn. Mom didn't hover or nitpick about my errors, she'd let me determine if something needed to be fixed. However, she was available if I asked for help, but I did need to ask.   So here we are 50 years later and we're both still knitting. A sample of Mom's fall collection of baby hats  Mom uses her skills in very practical ways.  Most of her great grandchild have a sweater, blan...

Bacon and an egg What does one do with lots of knitted food?  I've given some to my nephew's two little girls.  His wife runs childcare out of their home, and I thought the kids would enjoy having a full array of goodies.  So they have a hot dog, hamburger, fries, bologna and cheese sandwich on whole wheat, fries, piece of cake, cupcake etc. (They will all be revealed in time.)  Almost all were made using Susie Johns' 20 to Make:  Knitted Fast Food. Here's breakfast: an egg, sunny side up, and a piece of bacon.  The most difficult task in this project was finding the right colour of red for the bacon.  Once I succeeded there the rest was simple.  The yolk of the egg is stuffed with a bit of fiberfill, backed with cardboard and sewn to the white. I especially like to eat my morning eggs off a red plate and this colour helped my knitted egg as well, I think. Making this up saved me from having to clean the ...

Shown below is the second throw knit for my other son's wedding shower.  This one was made in 2010, did include more repeated patterns and is another Rena Stevens' pattern for a Breezy Ruffled Throw . My version of R. Stevens' Summer Breeze Throw The colour scheme was based on the colours shown on the pattern but includes a darker blue adding more blue overall because the bride likes that colour .  Additionally it was going to North Carolina where there is lots of sun, and I love working with sunny colours during the gray Vancouver winter.  This throw was knit from north to south as shown above requiring no sewing together of pieces.  It includes two basic stitch patterns:  the wider bumpy strips and the more lacy yellow strips that break up the other colours. I have accomplished my goal of getting both sons afghans completed on time.  And I have carried Grandma Perry's tradition forward.

Not everything I knit is non-essential, though proportionally more projects are artistic than useful.  Here's a post regarding something I've made that can actually be used.  The attentive reader will quickly realize it doesn't have to fit a human form though.  The afghan I got from Grandma Perry My paternal grandmother did something for her 9 grandchildren, she crocheted an afghan for each of us when we got married.  Grandma made mine in 1975 which was a time of granny squares.  Now over 35 years old it still looks great, even though the colour scheme is so 70's. We used it a lot when I lived in North Dakota, in fact I still use it.   After the wedding two sons came along so this afghan has been washed more than a few time. Fast forward to late 2008 when my youngest son announced he was getting married the following July.  Rather than take on potential grandchildren like Grandma Perry, I adapted her idea...

So this weekend, I drove to Seattle to pick up Paul.  We got in town with just enough time for me to run into my favorite Seattle LYS (local yarn shop) before it closed.   I try to stay away from yarn shops because I have a SABLE (stash acquirement beyond life expectancy).   In other words I need no more new yarn since I own six boxes full of yarn already.  But this shop is so cute I can't help myself and the artfully arranged shelves of colourful yarn gives me great pleasure. My tape yarn (at least new to me) Fortunately or unfortunately I found the yarn above.  As you can see it is really a webbed tape and not a yarn at all.  Since I wasn't sure what to do with it, I asked and the helpful shop owner showed me a rather lovely scarf  and give me the easy instructions to make it. Using a #8 or 5 mm needle pick up 8 stitches along one side of the tape.  Then cast off those 8 stitches using stitches you pick up on the same side of the t...

Hamburger with the works sans onions One of my readers asked today if I was going to make a hamburger to go with the fries.  In actuality, I had knit the hamburger before the fries but have no photo of this mountain of knitting in action. Here you see my creation has a kaiser bun, a non-quarter pounder burger, lettuce leaf, and slice of tomato. Seems now in retrospect I fashioned my burger after MacDonald's, the bun is bigger than the patty.  Too bad it is so hard to see the satisfactory variation of brown in the beef.  I looked for months to find that perfect yarn. Again Susie Johns offered the pattern in 20 to Make:  Knitted Fast Food , but I got a bit carried away with the size of the lettuce leaf and thought the tomato slice was absolutely necessary.  (I like a fresh slice of tomato on my hamburger, doesn't everyone?) Actually it looks better without everything staked together, but hey if you have it, flaunt it.  So Kai did have a hamburger to...

I have plenty of stash, most very small amounts of yarn.  It is tough to figure out what to do with all these tiny amounts and frankly I'm too cheap to throw them out.  My stash of leftovers has grown to an impressive size.  So when someone wished that she could get something "artistic" regarding donuts, I offered to knit her a couple.  Using Susie Johns', 20 to Make:  Knitted Fast Food   I found a way to cut my stash and make someone happy, hopefully. After knitting two donuts and sending them along I decided it might be fun to see what variations I could develop.  The donut to the right above was designed around one with sprinkles now available from Tim Horton's.  I added plastic with yarn on another to get a glazed look.  Tiny white beads were added to others to make them appear sugared.  Before I knew it one donut became ten. So needing a container I got a clean donut box and filled it.  Sin...