Knitted Gems's Page

I have pulled up anchor and sailed my blog off to a new port.

New blog home: http://knittedgems.com

I hope you will visit me at my new home.

Thank you.

I hope you had a Happy Easter!

We had family and friends over yesterday. Both my SIL and BIL came over. My dear friends also brought their son Finn, our godson. We had a simple dinner followed by egg dyeing.

Have I mentioned how much I love my oven lately? It's the best oven in the world! While my ham was cooking in the big oven, I had my lemon poppy cake baking away in the mini oven at a different temperature. It saved me so much time.

I truly had a wonderful time cooking the dinner up. I was in my element, singing (poorly) along to my CD's. Dan checked in on me and shook his head in bewilderment.

Of course, the mess all my cooking made didn't leave me quite as joyful. All I could think of after everybody left was a quote from an unknown woman. "If a woman was to see all the dishes that she had to wash before she died piled up before her in one pile, she'd lie down and die right then and there."



I should mention that I had already washed and put away the preparation dishes. Plus, the dishwasher had been loaded and ran once.

Rather than face it right away, I hid in my sewing room. Certain I couldn't handle any large and detailed projects, I opted to hem Dan's work pants.



It did the trick. It pepped me up enough that I was able to face the mountain of dishes. Dan had thought I would tackle them Monday morning, but there is one thing I hate more than a dirty kitchen and that is being faced with a dirty kitchen first thing in the morning. I'd rather have a root canal.

I have named the tag blanket pattern after my friend's daughter Evie. It was her fascination with taggies (she has two tag blankets and one tag toy) that inspired me to alter my XandO cloth into a tag blanket.

After working for a whole week on the pattern, it is finally complete. The pattern contains two full pages of charts. The written directions take up another 8 pages.

Please don't let the length of the pattern scare you. The pattern itself is not difficult. It was my desire to present the pattern in the most user-friendly manner that caused it to grow out of proportions.

The pattern can be instantly downloaded through The Knitting Vault.

If you are on Ravelry, this link will escort you to my pattern store where you can read the full description and/or purchase the pattern. Upon purchase and payment, the pattern will automatically be added to your Ravelry library.

A word of caution: It is assumed that double knitting takes twice as long as plain knitting. I would assert that it takes three times as long. Double knitting requires a great deal of manipulation with the two strands of yarn being used. Typically, before and after each stitch, one of the strands of yarn must be maneuvered into place. Thus, this project should not be started the night before the day it is needed. Of course, if you do manage to complete it in one day, I'd love to know about it!

I finished Katie's doll quilt last night!

Well, there are a few white lies in that announcement. The quilt isn't completely finished; I still have to tack down the corners. It's not a "real" quilt either; it's a "cheater" quilt.

The top of the quilt is just one piece of fabric. The batting is just a piece of flannel fabric. I'm still calling it a quilt, because I did quilt the layers together. They are loosely quilted, but quilted all the same. I just followed any straight lines I could find in the fabric top that went from side to side without meandering. (I don't trust my machine to meander. Often when I turn a corner on it, the needle gets jammed). Then, I stitched around the hearts that all the My Little Ponies were framed in.



The whole quilt was machine quilted, including the binding. I topstitched it down rather than hand tack it to the back. I imagine with the white fabric on the back side, this quilt is going to require a lot of machine washing.

I tried taking pictures last night, but without any sunlight to speak of, they came out a bit dark. I'll try again this weekend.

And for cards - I have 3 new ones to show you!

First, a personalized card inspired by my new Carol Duvall book.



Carol had included instructions on how to stamp directly over paper colored in chalk. I don't have chalk. Nor was I about to color a whole piece of paper in chalk anyway. I want instanst gratification!

But, if you look closely, you'll notice that the color underneath the bike is yellow. I colored a small section of the red cardstock with a yellow colored pencil to make the stamp pop out a bit more.

In case you're wondering who I personalized the card for, it's me. I ride a red bike to run errands and my last name starts with h.

Next up is an Easter card.



I just piled some cardstock up and slapped a bunny button on top. (The back of the button was cut off with an Xacto knife).

Lastly, I give you a Greenland card. Now, I've never been to Greenland. And for the record, I have no desire to go. I hear it's really cold there. I can barely suffer through the Pennsylvania winters without whining once a week.



This picture is from a 1956 encyclopedia that came with the purchase of this house. The son, for whom the collection was purchased for many years ago, thought he could live without the knowledge.

To perhaps encourage my card fetish, my MIL sent me down a present with Dan's early b-day present. (Thanks, Mom!)

It's full of great ideas! I can't wait to try the weaving and frame techniques. Since I have enough birthday cards made for everyone's birthday this year and a few even for next year, I think I'll start on mini holiday cards, like Halloween and Thanksgiving.