Homesteading a Step at a Time

Let me be clear. I do not own any land. I don't even own the house my family lives in. We are planning on moving this year, and buying a nice house with at least two (preferably 5) acres. I have wanted to live somewhere I could have chickens for years, but alas, that has yet to occur. I have a very serious 5-10 year plan that will initiate the year we buy our first home. The plan has everything from a large garden, small orchard, goats, cow, and chickens!

In the mean time, I have decided that each year I will learn one or two new things that will be useful when I am growing my own food and raising my own animals. Two years ago, it was bread making. I have a Panasonic SD-YD250 that I love. I have had it for a couple years, but really started using it last year. I can make pizza dough, dessert breads, sweet breads, and dinner rolls. I learned how to make different kinds of bread this year, advancing my bread making skills! My favorite is sour cream bread.

Fresh loaf of bread

This year I started using herbal remedies for my family's ailments (teas and syrups mostly). I used herbs from my deck garden, which I grew organically, in a standing planter my husband built. I made a lot of teas which kept the cold symptoms as bay, and syrups were for the kids! Much easier to give them than store medicine. They were begging for it! It was even easy to give to my baby because it tasted good! I also started making my body care products, like body cream.

My deck planter!

So whether we move or not this year, I plan on tackling canning with locally grown fruits and veggies. I will try and further advance my bread making abilities and herbal knowledge. I will also be expanding the herbs I have in my deck garden. These sorts of things help assuage my desire to make things by hand, and create what I own. It helps keep me in touch with the Earth, while at the same time preparing me for the day when my dreams are more tangible.

Whether your home sits on a half acre or no acres (like mine), there are things that you can learn how to do to become more self sufficient and treat your body better! Like:

Bread making
Weaving
Container gardening or traditional gardening
Herbalism
Canning fruits and veggies
Making your body care products
Making dairy products (if you can get ahold of the raw milk!)

Can you add some more things to this list? I would love to hear your suggestions!

Paintings are Getting Better

My big MomMe goal that I achieved last weekend…. I set aside time to paint! It turned out really well! I bought some of the tiny 5x5 canvases and used my good acrylic paint. Lately, I have been painting on paper, using the student level paint, but for this project, I found an image online that I liked, and just went for it! I can already see what I would do differently, but this is something I would hang up in my house!

 

I used the Windsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic paints, which I purchased 50% off the original price with a wonderful Michael’s coupon. I love the quality of the paint, and the colors are nice and bright. I also picked up a tabletop easel at Michael’s for $10! It was originally $20, but they were doing a 50% off special for all of the easels as well! I bought a set of Artist’s Loft brushes some time ago, which I am still getting a lot of use out of. I will eventually buy higher quality brushes, but if you have ever walked down that aisle in a craft store, you will know why I am waiting until I elevate my skills.

 

I have actually painted a few pictures this month, that I haven’t blogged about. I purchased “Learn how to Paint in Acrylics with 50 small paintings”. Lovely book, and the author/artist keeps things very simple which I appreciate. Some of the initial painting topics don’t really interest me (e.g. a piece of toast), but I am going to do them to acquire the skills and techniques that he has laid out in the book.

I loved painting landscapes when I was a child, so I will be trying to paint those in addition to painting the small paintings in this book. I found an image online that I was inspired by, so I went with it:

No MomMe Time

So I was hitting a pretty good knitting productivity rate. I have my “TV knitting” project, which I work on when my boys are awake, and I have my “requires concentration” project that I work on once all of the chores are done, and the boys are in bed. Then life happened. My husband started getting really bad pain in his back, and unfortunately the small amount of free time I normally have got sucked up picking up the slack. This happens to everyone, I know.

 

I can’t help but look longingly at my projects, wishing I had the time to work on them. It is Wednesday, and I haven’t picked up my TV project since Saturday. My TV project is a gift AND prototype for a new design, so I really want to get it done! My “requires concentration” project is a prototype for a design that I’m hoping to have published and for sale by March.

 

Being part of a family and a marriage means things don’t always go my way I suppose. I do really need to set aside some priority time for myself though. Knitting soothes my mind, and I can’t exude peace and calm when I don’t have any. Moms (and Dads!), we need to take better care of ourselves, so we can take care of all of our little people! I wrote this post as a way to vent, but even as I wrote it, I knew that so many would relate, and it made me feel instantly better. So thank you for reading!

 

Bamboo Stitch Loom Knit Scarf

I wanted to make a scarf for my husband this year. A nice thick and warm scarf, but also one that was a touch decorative. I started out doing cables, but I was not happy with the holes next to them. Advice I have received since then tells me that next time I should stick with the project, and judge it after I take it off the loom and block it.


I found a stitch called bamboo stitch that Denise Canela had converted from needles to the loom. It looked perfect for what I wanted, so I began working on a scarf design. I would say this is good TV knitting if you are watching something that isn't too intense. I did have to go back a couple times because I missed where I needed to do row three of the stitch pattern. To add to the ease of knitting this, I recommend using stitch markers placed on your pegs as a visual reminder of the repeats within a row.






I used Loops and Threads Cozy Wool in black (got it from my local Michael's on sale!), and a 3/4" gauge loom. I used about 2.5 balls of yarn, so I would recommend purchasing at least three balls or 250 yards so you have a little extra yarn. After casting on, I knitted until the scarf was about 70" in length. For most adult scarves, I would recommend 65-70" to allow for a good wrap, and some material tucked into the jacket to increase warmth. Plus a longer scarf can show off colors or stitch patterns better.

I used the U turn knit stitch except where indicated.


S1=slip one (meaning skip this peg
HS= half stitch (meaning wrap the peg from the back around the front. All of the first and last stitches of a row will be slipped and half stitched in turns. This gives a lovely braided look to the scarf's edges)
ssk= slip, slip, knit (over 3 pegs, lift the yarn off of peg one, slip the yarn in front, same with peg 2, and then flat knit peg three. Using the flat knit for the pegs where the yarn is slipped over the two preceding pegs causes these loops to be a little more snug in the finished product.)
Each row is 3+2


Cast on 22 pegs using the chain cast on


the pattern is worked over 4 rows:
R1: S1, k2, p1* until last stitch, HS
R2: S1, p1, k2* until last stitch, HS
R3: S1, ssk with the yarn in front, flat knit 1* until last stitch, HS
R4: S1, p1, k2* until last stitch, HS


Repeat the rows until the scarf is 65-70" in length




Cast off using the single or double crochet cast off. I used the double.


This scarf would make a great gift for anyone, but the pattern makes it an easy gift for a boy or a man, since it isn't a stitch pattern that would be considered "girly".






My husband and youngest in the new scarf!

Simple Herbal Remedy for Coffee Aftertaste: Mint in Your Coffee!

Plenty of people in the world love coffee. I never drank it until I had children. Yep, that’s right, my children drive me to drink, no surprise there! Coffee that is. The one thing I positively detest is that coffee aftertaste that lingers on the back of your tongue following a cup (or three as the case may be). I began thinking that there had to be an easy way to eliminate this, so I didn’t have to relive the worst aspects of coffee. I was drinking my first cup of coffee while looking out at my deck herb garden. All was rarely quite; none of my children were awake, so I was savoring the moment…. And then I got an idea.

 

I went out to my chocolate mint plant, and clipped off a single sprig. It was about two sets of leaves in total. I put it in my empty cup, and filled it with coffee. Cream and sugar added and I had my experiment ready! I gave the mint leaves a minute or two to release their oils, and I took a sip. The flavor released by the leaves was just the barest hint of mint, meaning it was not overpowering. More importantly, when I was done with the cup, I did not have that taste on the back of my tongue!




My trooper chocolate mint plants!

 

I discovered this trick in the summer, and I have been using it with almost every cup of coffee. I brought my herbs indoors in pots. They grow a bit slower, but I also pilfer sprigs from my spearmint plant as well. Buy yourself a couple of mint plants, or find a neighbor like me, and be prepared to enjoy your coffee without that lingering taste!

To Frog or Not to Frog?

I am working on a design for a shawl I am going to call “Springtime”. It is a combination of two stitches, to evoke two images we often associate with springtime: little leaves and raindrops. I was going to do it all in a lovely mint color I got from my first DBNY.com order, but as I reached the end of the first skein, I realized I wasn’t going to have enough yarn. Plus it took me one iteration of my planned stitch pattern to get the border just the way I wanted. So I had one section where the border wasn’t quite right. I started playing with the idea of adding another color of yarn into my project. I have a nice blue, and that was when I was inspired!

I was planning on alternating the leaf stitch pattern and raindrop stitch pattern, but then I thought, “if I am going to add blue, then I can just do the raindrop stitch in blue!” I had already done some raindrop in the green though…. So it was decision making time. Do I continue on, with my new design ideas, and just leave the previous work the way it is, or do I pull it all off the loom and start over? Eventually, I came to the realization that what I currently have planned will be a more artful design, better conveying the idea of springtime.  I want my first prototype of the shawl to be everything it can be. I am hoping that this design will be my first paid design, and I want my prototype to be as beautiful, so that the pictures I take of this shawl speak to those who might have an interest in making one for themselves.

Conversely, I have made mistakes in my knitting and just left them. For example, I was making a garter stitch hat for one of my boys, and I accidentally did two rows of knit stitch. If you are a needle knitter, it would be like you throwing in an unnecessary row of purl stitches when trying to produce garter stitch. I hadn’t notice my error though, and produced about 1.5 inches of hat before I saw it. I was going to go back, but my husband said “Don’t worry about it. He won’t notice, it adds character anyway.” With my shawl though, the errors did matter, and if I had left them, I wouldn’t have been able to use the shawl for my pictures and for the final production of the design.

When deciding to frog a project (or not as the case may be), you should weigh the pros and cons. You don’t want to always leave noticeable errors in your project, but neither do you want to be such a perfectionist that you take forever to finish even short projects. Our mistakes are what help us to learn and grow, so they aren’t always all bad.

When you are knitting something for yourself, your mistakes may not glare at you as badly as when you are knitting a gift for someone else, or even knitting something you intend on selling. When you are knitting something you want to give or sell to someone else, the mistakes you make can bring down the perceived quality of the item, depending on what the mistakes are. You generally want to present your best work to others. In pattern design, you want to give people using your pattern the best example of the project you can. Your prototype should be an exact example of how other’s project can turn out if they follow your design.

Basically, I think frogging or even going back to far on a project should be a decision you make on a case by case basis. Having to go back to far can be very discouraging. If it is for someone else though, your motivation is different, and it becomes more important that the item appear exactly as you mean it too. We are not machines, to never make errors, but the work we sell or give as gifts deserves our best effort. Even if that effort means starting over, or undoing a lot of the project.

Publishing on Ravelry

I published my first pattern on Ravelry today. Wow, what a great feeling! The pattern I published was the Lace Stitch Legwarmers pattern. If you have read it before, go check it out again here. I added an option to use the 31 peg large gauge loom for larger calves. I love legwarmers because with loose boots, they work great as boot toppers as well. Wonderful for flats and leggings or boots or leggings, so what is not to love? I still plan on doing the same pattern with bulky yarn instead of super bulky, so the pattern may see an update when that happens.

Publishing on Ravelry was super easy. Much easier than I thought it was going to be. Actually, the pattern generator is what caused me to add the option for a larger circumference legwarmer. The pattern generator introduces fields in sections, and it is very easy to begin a draft and come back to it later. I have a draft saved for the Bamboo Stitch Scarf I am working on. I am just finishing up the scarf, and I plan on publishing that pattern once I have some pictures to go with it.

The generator even draws your attention to anything that is left blank, so you can make sure you leave no fields empty, unless that is your intention. As soon as I hit the ‘publish’ button, my pattern was searchable on Ravelry! It is exciting to get my first design out into a forum in which I hope it will be helpful to others. There are not a lot of free loom knitting patterns for legwarmers available right now, so I am glad that I was able to contribute to an accessory niche in need of patterns!

Sublime Bamboo/Silk Yarn Review

I received a couple of orders of yarn last week, and overall I am very pleased with what I purchased. The first yarn I pulled out was a bamboo/silk blend by Sublime. I had never heard of this company before shopping on DBNY.com, but I am so glad I took a chance on it! I decided to try a lacy spring shawl on my infinity loom, in the Key Lime colorway. The feel and texture is similar to that of Yarn Bee Hint of Silk, however I don't think that Sublime Bamboo/Silk blend is as prone to fraying as much as Hint of Silk is. The Sublime Bamboo/Silk blend is prone to splitting thought; I have to keep an eye out or I will lose threads. If you are loom knitting, be careful because it is easy to not remove all of the yarn from a peg because it is so soft and smooth.

The Sublime Yarn Company was started in 2006, and they strive to produce only the best in luxurious natural fibers in beautiful soft colors. Their website also has a lot of designs for knitting and crochet, but of course, not loom knitting. You cannot purchase yarn directly from the site; as I said, I got mine from DBNY.com.

My initial impressions of the yarn suggest that it will give a lovely sheen and drape to any project you choose to use it for. With this Key Lime color, it will be perfect to wear through spring and summer, since it is a bamboo/silk blend. I know it seems a bit early to be considering things to knit and wear for summer, but the Spring Equinox in is March, and April will be here before we know it. Typical of bamboo and silk yarns, I wouldn't suggest using it for anything that requires a good yarn memory, like anything with cuffs and such. A cotton silk might be better for that. If you were planning a long sleeve top that doesn't need to be snug, you could definitely still use this yarn for that, as long as you planned for a relaxed fit.

I will, of course, do a separate post for the spring shawl, but it is going to take me awhile to finish. I bought 4 balls of the Sublime Key Lime, so hopefully it is enough. On my infinity loom, I cast on 60 pegs (classic knit cast on), did 3 rows of garter stitch (6 rows altogether), and then started my lace pattern.

Coveted Yarn Review

The first site I ordered from and have actually received the yarn is Coveted Yarn.com. First of all I give them 5 stars for shipping costs, and 5 stars for delivery time. I was charged $5 for shipping, and it was only 5 days from the time I placed my ordered to the time I received it. Wow! Cheap and fast is the way I like my shipping! Coveted Yarn took me awhile to find online, I’ll be honest. I was looking for good wholesale and discontinued yarn sites for a few days when what must have been a slight quirk in my search query brought up Coveted Yarn. They should work on their SEO (meaning Search Engine Optimization) to bring the joy of Coveted Yarn to more people!

From what I can tell, Coveted Yarn doesn’t have quite as large of a selection as some of the other sites, but they do appear to add new inventory at least once per week. It is hard to tell; they have a new items page, but it is alphabetical order. Their website itself leaves a few things to be desired. I would love it if they added how many of each yarn colorway that they had in stock as part of the item listing. You don’t know if they have the number you want until you try and put it in your cart. Then the site tells you “Sorry we edited the number in your cart” or something to that effect. So if you wanted 5, and they only have 3, there is a warning about that in your cart item list.

They have a great clearance tab, where you can see all of the clearance items, but there are a ton of items that are on sale, that are not on clearance, which you won’t see. I remedy this by using their “Yarn by Fiber” page to look for natural fibers and blends that I am interested in purchasing. You also cannot see the yarn’s price until you click on that yarn and look at the color options. Sometimes certain options for the yarn (i.e. single skein versus bag of 10) are on sale while others are not, so I understand why they don’t list the price. I think this could be fixed by listing the lowest price, or a price range for the yarn, so you know if that yarn is even in your price range before clicking on it.

I was excited to see there was a blog, and then immediately disappointed to discover that the last post was in 2014. The blog could be utilized for featuring a particular yarn company, yarn type, yarn fiber, new inventory, etc. I would love to read yarn reviews and about some of the lesser known yarn companies sold by Coveted Yarn. Some of the yarn sold on the site comes from companies I have never heard of. By having a blog post on a company’s history, it would inform buyers and give them confidence when purchasing the yarn. I give the site itself 3 stars.

The site is the only thing I am not a fan of for Coveted Yarn, that being said, if they are putting more into customer service as a result, then I’m fine with it since it is usable. Coveted Yarn is a site I would definitely recommend you check on a regular basis to stock up on hard to find fibers that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Overall, my rating is 4 stars, with a note that despite the website, I will be purchasing more yarn in the near future!

Shopping Online for Luxury Yarn

How to Buy Luxury Yarn Online

Silk. Bamboo. Cashmere. Angora. Mohair. Llama. All of these, among many others, are considered luxury fibers. Most manmade fibers are designed to feel like a natural fiber of some kind. This usually makes manmade fibers cheaper to make and sell. As a knitter, I love natural fibers. The normally breath better, absorb moisture, or keep you warmer that manmade fibers. You know what I don’t love? Luxury fiber prices!

Don’t get me wrong. I do not begrudge these hard working fiber creators their profit. It is a product I’m willing to buy. It is hard, expensive work taking care of the animals or plants that produce the fibers I love to knit with. That being said, anywhere I can get my luxury fiber fix for cheap is something I’m going to look into.

Before ordering yarn online, I would try visiting your local yarn store (Google it, you probably have one near you). By local yarn store, or LYS, I don’t mean Hobby Lobby or Michaels. I mean a small locally owned craft store. They often have a huge amount of natural yarn and natural blends. Go there, and look around. Touch the yarns, so you know what they feel like. Buy some if you find some you like; I love supporting small businesses.

If you don’t have a LYS to visit, or if you find a yarn online that intrigues you that you cannot find in a store, I recommend looking for reviews of that yarn, either on the yarn producer’s site or in an online crafting community like Ravelry.com. On Ravelry.com, you can find the yarn, and see projects in which that yarn was used, and see reviews for most yarns. When you can at least see the sorts of projects people used the yarn for, it can shape your expectation for what you will receive if you purchase it. If you cannot find that specific yarn anywhere (meaning it could be from a very small producer), then look for yarns with a similar make up. For example, I found a yarn on Numei.com that is cotton/bamboo blend that I cannot find reviews for. I went on Ravelry and looked at yarns with similar fiber profiles to get an idea for how this yarn might knit up.

A lot of discontinued yarn sites will have yarn from producers you have never heard of. If this is your first time looking outside places like large chain stores for your yarn, this isn't a huge surprise. So look up these yarn producers. Just because you haven't heard of them, doesn't mean that they aren't putting a quality product out there. Be wary of any off label yarn. It might look nice, but I have heard of people getting balls or hanks full of knots, and yarn that snags on EVERYTHING. Do your research if you aren't confident in the producer. 

With this new knowledge, you have a better chance at choosing yarn that will meet your hopes for a project’s final appearance. The sites I have found that have the best prices for yarn are discontinued yarn sites. These sites by leftover yarn from stores, and in some cases, from individuals who need to destash their personal collections. The benefits of shopping on these sites are the extremely low prices. The main detractor I have come across so far with this sort of sourcing is limited quantities. You find a yarn normally out of your price range that you would love to have, and it would be ideal for a blanket, for example. The site you found this dream yarn on only has 3 balls. Definitely not enough for a blanket. If you need or particularly want a certain fiber or type of yarn though, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and pay full price. 

Holes in My Loom Knit Cables

Wow, so I tried to get started on a black cable scarf for my husband a couple nights ago, and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to make these cable without giant holes in them! I was trying to do a four stitch cable, and I tried everything to get rid of these holes. I must have restarted the project from the beginning at least four times over the last couple days. I would be okay with small holes, but these holes are huge! The point of the scarf is to keep his neck warm. It won’t do that if it is full of holes (I know, I am being dramatic, but I can stick my fingers through them!).

I did some searching online, and I followed a few different sets of instructions, and I still end up with holes. After reading some forum posts, it sounds like some people just accepted that there will be holes with their cables, and I cannot believe this to be true. I am going to continue searching for a way to make cables on my loom. A way that does not involve pretending that there are not holes in my knitting.

 

If you know of a way, please share it! If I find a way, I will update this post. Check out the size of these holes!

Lace Stitch Loom Knit Legwarmers

It has been a long time since I have written anything for my blog! To be honest, once the baby was born, I didn’t pick any of my knitting back up for a long time. The weather turned colder however, and my boys wanted me to knit hats for them again this year. Once I picked my one of my round looms to make a couple of hats, I decided to finish the 10 stitch blanket I had been languishing over for more than a year. Once I completed that project, I used some Hometown USA yarn I found on sale at WalMart ($2.49 a ball!) to knit myself a pair of leg warmers.

Those leg warmers are what I want to write to you about today. I didn’t want to only knit in knit stitch; I wanted to do something interesting. Small projects are a great way to practice or learn new techniques, and I have quite a few that need dusting off. So I decided to look up loom lace patterns. Sadly, I didn’t find too many. Keep in mind, when I say “lace”, I am referring to the pattern, not the yarn weight.

After reading through a couple of patterns, I could see that one of the primary ways to get a see through pattern was through Yarn Overs (YO), Slip Slip Knits (ssk), Knit 2 Together (k2tog), and Purl 2 Together (p2tog). I plotted out my design, and decided to see how a lace style pattern would turn out with a super chunky yarn on my 24 peg blue large gauge loom.

I did a chain cast on, and then 8 rows of 2x2 ribbing. My lace pattern is based on garter stitch, with all of the YO, ssk, k2tog, etc. thrown in. Take a look:


Pattern completed in multiples of 6 stitches.

Cast on: Chain cast on

Row 1-8: k2, p2* until done with row 8

Row 9: YO, ssk, YO, ssk, k2* repeat to the end of the row

Row 10: p2tog, YO, p2tog, YO, p2* repeat to the end of the row

Repeat rows 9 & 10 until you have 30-35 rows. (I did 30)

Do 8 more rows of 2x2 ribbed stitch.

Cast off: Double Crochet Cast Off LOOSELY, or else it might be too snug around your calf.


If you wanted to make these legwarmers for someone with bigger calves (mine are about 13.5" around), use a large gauge 31 peg round loom (next loom size up out of the usual 4 pack). Change the last repeat of row 9 to :YO, ssk, YO, ssk, k3*, and change the last repeat of row 10 to: p2tog, YO, p2tog, YO, p3*.

My legwarmers look great! I plan on trying this pattern again with a bulky (size 5) yarn to see how it turns out. 

Beaded Loom Knit Infinity Scarf

Pattern Notes: Unless otherwise indicated, "knit" refers to the e-wrap knit

In an effort to make this infinity scarf design a bit more unique, I picked up some beads from Michael's the last time I was there. Not the tiny glass beads from the Czech Republic or Japan, but larger beads to thread onto my worsted or chunky yarns. This is what I ended up with:

I already have ideas for improvement upon the design, particularly for reinforcement around each bead, and have started on version 2.0. However the initial version of the design would probably work well enough if plastic or light wooden beads were used, so I will jot it down here.

Firstly, you will want to determine how many beads you want to use. I used 18 large pink beads for my scarf, and spaced them about every 9 rows of garter stitch apart. I prestrung the beads onto the yarn before casting on, and then cast on 16 stitches using the crochet cast on. I worked nine rows of garter stitch (so 18 rows of *r1: knit, r2: purl*), and I would string on a bead in between the pegs. So:

String beads onto yarn
Cast on 16 stitches using crochet cast on
Row 1: slip 1, knit, half stitch last stitch
Row 2: slip 1, purl, half stitch last stitch
Complete however many rows of garter stitch you need to equally space your beads out in the scarf (in my case it was 9 rows of garter stitch, or about 3 inches of knitting)
Always string on the bead in a purl row.
Each time I strung on a bead, I moved over to a new peg. I.e. if I strung on a bead between pegs 2 and 3 (I never use the space between pegs 1 and 2 or 15 and 16 since the first stitch is a slip stitch), the next time I placed a bead would be 9 rows later between pegs 3 and 4)
Once the appropriate length is reached, cast off using the crochet cast off.

My scarf was about 60 inches at cast off time, and took me about 4 hours to complete. I also used the fast garter stitch method, which you can watch here.

Don't forget to flip one of the ends of your scarf before seaming the edges together; I forgot and had to start my seaming over.

I did not like how much the weight of the beads pulled the yarn from the scarf, so many of the beads have a dangle look, which I am sure will make them more likely to be ripped from the scarf.

In my second attempt, which based off how it looks so far, I would recommend for any heavy beads, the pattern looks like this, with 6 rows of garter stitch because I am using more beads:

Cast on 16 stitches with crochet cast on.
^Row 1: slip 1, knit, HS last stitch
^Row 2: S1, purl, HS last stitch
Row 3: S1, knit, HS last stitch
Row 4: S1, purl, HS last stitch
Row 5: S1, knit, HS last stitch
Row 6: S1, purl, HS last stitch
Row 7: S1, knit, HS last stitch
Row 8: S1, purl, HS last stitch
Row 9: S1, knit to peg 12, flat knit pegs 13 and 14, knit peg 15, HS peg 16
Row 10: S1, purl, HS last stitch
Row 11: S1, knit to peg 12, flat knit pegs 13 and 14, knit peg 15, HS peg 16
Row 12: S1, purl to peg 14, place bead securely between pegs 13 and 14, purl, HS last stitch
^Row 13: S1, knit to peg 12, flat knit pegs 13 and 14, knit peg 15, HS peg 16
^Row 14: S1, purl, HS last stitch

The next bead you should place would be between pegs 12 and 13, unless you had a design in mind for the placement of the beads.

^Rows 13 and 14 takes the place of Rows 1 and 2 after the first bead placement. It is a preparatory row for reinforcement so the bead does not dangle from the scarf. So after that initial bead placement, pick up the pattern at Row 3.

What v. 2.0 looks like so far:

The beads feel more secure than on v. 1.0, so I think the finished product will have an overall better look! V. 2.0, once it is finished will have it's own blog post, so be on the look out for it!

Textured Loom Knit Baby Sweater

So I have made a couple baby sweaters for my baby to be following a very simple pattern provided by Ruth Volk on Ravelry. When I started my third one, I was admittedly getting a little bored, so I have decided to tweak the pattern to make it more interesting to knit as well as more visually interesting.

Deviating from the pattern, I cast on 26 pegs. I slipped the first stitch of every row, and half stitched the last stitch of every row. The original pattern does not call for this, but I think this may make seaming the pieces together easier because the edge of each piece will be so neat.

My next deviation is my addition of purl rows to add texture. So following the cast on I did:

R1-4: E-wrap knit
R5: Purl
R6: Purl

I repeated this pattern, stopping on a knit row at 34 rows. The original pattern calls for 34 rows, and the addition of the purl rows will probably shorten my sweater's length. I think after blocking though, it won't really matter too much, since the sweater is for a newborn.

For each front piece, I cast on 14 stitches, and followed the same pattern as I did for the back. Once both front pieces were complete, I seamed the front pieces to the back for 7 stitches on each side.

I crocheted a single chain border all around the edges once I was done, creating button loops as I went, as the original pattern suggested. I am very pleased with this baby sweater; it is the best one I have made so far!

Textured Baby Sweater

Loom Knitting Vs. Needle Knitting: Garter Stitch

So I was feeling stressed out, and decided to take on a small project on needles instead of my loom. I knew the project would require more concentration, as I haven't knitted on needles in over a year. I also decided to take on a pattern that required attention across multiple rows. I began working on a seafoam stitch scarf designed by Ali Green, available for free on Ravelry.

My knowledge of loom knitting stitches actually got me turned around! On the loom, the garter stitch is created by alternating knit and purl rows. On needles, you just knit every row. I had to frog the scarf a few times because I kept producing stockinette stitch. I was alternating knit and purl rows on my needles. On the loom, to make the stockinette stitch, each row is knitted. This is because the project is not turned around the way it is when knitting needles are used.

I plan on finishing this project, but I will definitely only be doing small light projects on needles. The primary reason I stopped needle knitting was because my hands began to hurt each time I tried to knit. However, I cannot see myself giving it up completely, because there are still so many more resources for needle knitting than there are for loom knitting. That being said, I may try to convert some of my favorite needle knitting patterns for the loom, which should be an interesting challenge!

Venturing Back Into Painting

It has been a very long time since I have painted. About 13 years at this point. My medium was oil paints at the time. Now that I have children, and I am pregnant, I have decided to use acrylics for the time being. Due to their lack of toxicity, and quick drying time, acrylics seem like the better choice for me, as my studio is the kitchen, and not somewhere easily closed off from toddlers.

While on vacation last week, I signed up for an acrylic painting class. In the hour and a half allotted for the class, I was able to do a pretty nice rendition of the Massanutten mountain, and it spurred me to explore the possibility of painting again.

I experienced how quickly acrylics can dry! This is great for layering, and fixing mistakes, but can make it a little difficult when you are decisive. I think that once I have a better place for painting, I may want to do certain types of paintings in oils for the slow drying time. I blended my sky color to well, so I didn't get a strong suggestion of clouds, which I would have preferred. I am really happy with the way the river turned out. I did my best not to blend those colors too much, and left it pretty streaky. 

Just last night I attempted the still life cherry tutorial that can be found at The Will Kemp Art School, and it did not go as well as I would have liked. The tutorial is a four part series, and while he does keep it pretty basic, I don't think it was as basic as needed for someone with no experience doing still life paintings. 

I definitely want to try this again. but looking at it again this morning, I realized that it didn't look quite as bad as I thought it did. I got to do a colored ground for this, which I never did when I painted before, and I really like the effect. I can see that I forgot to round out the cherry shape after my initial sketch, and work on blending the dark parts, but it's not super terrible, lol.

As I work on developing technique, I bought a mixed media notebook to paint in, and a small pack of Artist's Loft paints (they were $4.99 at Michael's).

I checked out a DVD for Acrylic Painting beginners, so I'm hoping to get some good tips from that, as I try another landscape painting.