Jenna Takes On

Montessori websites

2011-01-21T12:56:00.004-05:00

Ok, I realize this blog kind of jumps around a lot, and I really haven't had tons of time to update frequently, but with three kids under 6, it happens. Anyway, I'd like to do a montessori based homeschooling with my kids, so I've been looking up montessori information. Figured I'd post it here so that I don't lose it. :)

http://homemademontessori.blogspot.com/
http://montessorird.com/index2.php?cPath=1
http://www.montessoriforlearning.com/FreeDownloadIndex.html

Dairy free me?

2010-08-31T11:15:00.003-04:00

We've determined that our three year old seems to have problems with dairy. So now the question is, how do we go about living our lives (and liking our food) without any dairy? Just when I thought I knew something about cooking, the game has changed and now it's time to relearn everything. One problem, though. I tend towards a "traditional foods" or "real food" (Google Weston A. Price for more information) philosophy of food, and that means I'm not interested in soy based replacements or hydrogenated vegetable fats. I also love food, so I'm not just going to give up dairy and not replace that lovely mouth feel and flavor with nothing.

Luckily, I have several friends who are also dairy free for a variety of reasons and have a variety of philosophies on food (vegan, multiple food sensitivities, etc) but at least I'm getting some good help in this direction. Also, from what I understand, we should be able to keep milk in our diet from other animals, like goats and sheep, so I'm looking into options for keeping some cheese, etc, in our diet. I'm hoping to post about my journey on this blog, in the coming weeks.

Oliver's Christmas Spider Hat

2009-12-21T16:46:00.004-05:00

I had decided to knit hats and mittens from the luscious Malabrigo Worsted I picked up for 20% off at my local yarn shop during their annual birthday sale. I had finished my daughter's and planned to embroider little flowers on her hat, but couldn't come up with a good (easy/beginner) embellishment for a boy's hat. Friends gave me ideas like stars and rocket ships, sailboats, etc... but I wasn't exactly sure how I'd do that, and I wasn't sure that Oliver would be into it.

Then the concept of bugs came up, and it reminded me that I had seen patterns for bobble spiders out there. I ran across this pattern for Spider Socks using that lovely spider. I realized that considering the hat I was making was on size 9 needles the gauge alone probably won't allow me to put the big spider pattern on a toddler hat, but her teeny spiders were perfect! Sadly, they were written for knitting from the top-down, but my hat was going from the bottom up. So I came up with a slightly different pattern for the spider and spread it over the course of the hat.

Soooo... here's my version of the spider, worked on reverse stockinette:

Worked in multiples of 9 stitches, in the round.

Round 1 & 2: Purl
Round 3, 5, 7, and 9: P1, slip 7 with yarn in front (be careful to leave it loose enough that you can attach it to your spider which will be on round 10, these will form the legs) P1.
Round 4 & 6: Purl
Round 8: P4, K1, P4
Round 10: P4, work bobble [knit in front of loop, knit in back of loop, knit in front of loop, knit in back of loop, knit in front of loop so that there are now 5 stitches in the bobble. Turn project around and purl across the 5 bobble stitches. Turn work and knit the 5 bobble stitches together through back of loop.] take the 4 slipped sections from rounds 3, 5, 7, and 9 and put them BEHIND the bobble, so that the bobble looks like the spider's body and the legs appear to come from it. P across.

Round 11 and as far above as you like: P4, K1, P4

I decided to do my spiders at various heights, to make it more interesting.

Sparkle: Beaded Holiday Placemats

2009-10-02T16:16:00.006-04:00

I've been trying to come up with things to make for family for christmas. I had an idea for some nice placemats that were simple, but still dressed up a little for the holidays. This is what I came up with:

Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Ultrasoft in Imperial Red
Needles: size 6
Gauge: 20 stitches per 4 inches
Beads: use a bead that has a large enough hole to get the beads onto the worsted weight yarn. The beads I used were the large sized glass beeds from beader's paradise (I found them at JoAnn fabrics)

PB (Place Beads): bring yarn to front of work, slide bead as close to last worked stitch as possible, slip next stitch while holding bead in front of it, so that the slipped stitch is behind the bead. Bring yarn back to back of work to begin next stitch.

Pattern for Placemat:

Thread 24 beads onto the yarn (BEFORE CASTING ON!!)
Cast on 80 stitches.
Work 6 rows of seed stitch (K1P1 across for a row, next row K1P1)

Row 1 (right side): work seed stitch in first 5 stitches, Knit to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch in last 5 stitches
Row 2 and every wrong side row: work seed stitch across first 5 stitches, Purl across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Row 3: work seed stitch in pattern for the first 5 stitches, knit 6, PB, knit across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Row 5: same as row 3
Row 7: work seed stitch across first 5 stitches, K3, PB, K2, PB, K2, PB, work across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Row 9: work seed stitch in first 5 stitches, K4, PB, K1, PB, K1, PB, knit across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Row 11: Work seed stitch in first 5 stitches, K5, PB, K1, PB, knit across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Row 13: Work seed stitch in first 5 stitches, K2, [PB, K1] 4 times, PB, knit across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Row 15: work as row 11
Row 17: work as row 9
Row 19: work as row 7
Row 21: work as row 3
Row 23: work as row 3
Row 25: Work seed stitch in first 5 stitches, K across to last 5 stitches, work seed stitch to end.
Continue working as row 25 until work measures 11 inches.
Work 6 rows of seed stitch. Bind off in pattern. Weave in ends.

Measurements: Finished placemat measures 16 inches by 12 inches.

Swell Snowflake Hat

2009-09-27T14:08:00.014-04:00

Well, I promised my sister I'd make her a hat, and even bought the yarn, about a year ago. But, well, she wanted a fair isle hat, and I wasn't overly great at complicated fair isle (the only fair isle I was happy with that I had done was that hat for Oliver, last year), so I decided now was the time to learn how to knit with the other hand... and I did! I think I'm almost as proficient (and actually faster!) with picking, now as I was with throwing. It's a very exciting development in my knitting ability :) Anyway, what they say is true, it *is* a lot easier to do stranded knitting holding one strand in each hand. It came out great, despite my gauge being slightly off - I'm still really happy with it.

Oliver's Easter Vest

2009-03-17T08:08:00.003-04:00

My not-quite-two year old son needs a vest for Easter. Little boys look so sweet in vests. I was looking around and eventually settled on this pattern from Lion Brand. I planned to use some of the TLC Cotton Plus that I had sitting around. So, I start knitting with size 8 needles and the cotton plus. I'm also doing this project as my first done using the continental version of knitting - yarn held in my left hand - where previously I have always knit English style.

Personally, I think this yarn looks better on smaller needles, generally, so I'm sort of nervous of upsizing to get the appropriate gauge. I knit my swatch and where I should have 17 stitches per 4 inchs, I have more like 20. So, using that I've decided to adjust the pattern to that gauge. I'm doing the 2 year size. Twenty stitches in 4 inches would be 5 stitches per inch. I want the vest measurements to be 11 inches wide, so I multiplied 5 (stitches per inch) times 11 (inches across) and came out with 55. However, to make it a nice even number I'm going with 56.

After the rib bottom edge, there's a portion where they increase 8 stitches across. So, subtracting that from the number that we determined above gives us a 48 stitch cast on. I'm doing the 1x1 rib for an inch then increasing 8 as follows: K3 M1, [K6, M1] to last 3 stitches, K3. It makes me crazy when they just say "increase evenly across" but make you figure out "evenly" for yourself.

Spring Cleaning.

2009-03-08T19:23:00.003-04:00

Ok, it's technically not spring yet, but in a fit of inspiration today I went through a closet that I've been meaning to go through for a while. It happened to be the closet that I had been keeping much of my stash in and some old projects that I had planned to finish or frog.

I came across an afghan that I had started working on when we went to the grand canyon back in 2001 or 2002. Back when I was a newbie crocheter. Why I started with a ginormous afghan on a size H hook, I'll never know, but now it's oh-so close to being done. In fact, it's probably long enough to be done now, but the problem is that it's white. What, that doesn't sound like a problem? Well, I was using mill end pound-of-yarn packages of acrylic that I got from AC Moore back when I was a poor college student. The problem is, the second pound of yarn I was working with doesn't match the first pound of yarn I was using. But I didn't have anything better, so I just kept going. The third pound of yarn, matches the first. So, now it's a white stripe blanket.

So I started working on it again and it came back surprisingly easily. It's slower for me than knitting, right now, because my hands aren't used to it. I'll post pictures when I get done.

Revisiting the Sweet Baby Cap

2009-03-03T18:59:00.004-05:00

My son has a ginormous head. He's 19 months old, but is wearing 2T-3T hats. Huge. I just measured him and he has a 19 inch head, but the standard head size for a "child" is 18 inches. I love that sweet baby cap and I want to do it again, but in the appropriate size for him. I'm calling it 3T, but it could be considered "child" size, I think. So, doing the math, I came up with 139 for the cast on. That's also adjusted for having all the sections be even length... because I'm a dork like that.

So, here's my final pattern (I think) mostly taken from the original but just with the tweaking described above:

Gauge: 24 stitches = 4 inches

Needles: Size 2 & 3 circular needles

Yarn: JoAnn Sensations Kashmira

Sizes: 3T / Child

CO 139 stitches with size 2 circular needle, join then knit 7 rounds in garter stitch (purl one round, then knit one round) then change to 3 mm needles and knit the rest in stockinette stitch, changing colors as you see fit.

At the same time:

On the next round, increase and decrease as follows:
k1, M1, k21, slip 1 - knit 2 tog tbl - psso, k 21, M1, k1, M1
k 21, slip 1 - knit 2 tog tbl - psso, k 21, M1, k1, M1, k 21, slip 1 - knit 2 tog tbl - psso, k 21, M1, k1

Repeat these increases and decreases every other round for 11, or 12 or 13 (depends on the size you want - an older kid will need more length in the hat) more rounds. Then do only the decreases every other round until there are 10 stitches left. Then k2tog until only one stitch is left, break yarn and thread through remaining stitches.

I like to attach twisted cord to the ear flaps. You can do i-cord or crocheted cord, too, if you prefer.

Trying my hand at fair isle

2008-09-17T09:10:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to doing some interesting color work. I found this pattern in Cool Knits For Kids. I couldn't find any errata for the pattern, and the pattern isn't even imputed on ravelry yet, but the pattern seems to be missing a chart, so I did my fair isle stuff mostly from the picture. It worked out, though - looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I also picked an alternate color scheme (the one in the book is pink) and took out the heart intarsia on the ear flaps and replaced it with a random fair isle pattern. I'm really happy with the result! Now, if I could only get my toddler to wear it!

Fibonacci Hat

2008-01-28T20:48:00.000-05:00

Well, since the other hat didn't fit my son's ginormous head, I ended up giving it away and trying again. This time, I used JoAnn Sensations Kashmira yarn (which is DK weight, in case you're wondering, but for some reason it's not labeled). I really like the JoAnn Sensations yarn. I didn't think I was going to like it this much but, for cheap wool, it's REALLY smooth. Not soft, really, so much as soft like cotton might be sorta soft. It doesn't feel scratchy at all like normal wool feels. I tried to felt it before though, since the label says "100% wool Felt-able" but the felting was terrible.

The colors I had I wasn't too sure about, so I had read on some blog someplace that if you use the Fibonacci sequence for the stripes it is more appealing to the eye than just straight stripes w/colors that don't necessarily go well together. I had about the same gauge (as far as I can tell) as with the patons classic marino, so I went with it, but I believe I cast on 113 this time to make up some circumference and also did 9 iterations of the increase part of the pattern. I love how it turned out. I'll see if I can get him to hold still enough to get a pic of him with it on.

Baby Hat take 2

2008-01-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so since they didn't give a gauge (or dimensions), I think the hat I made turned out closer to 0-6 month size. At least, it's tight on my 6 month old, but maybe he has a giant head. here's the pic, though. I guess I'll try a bigger number cast on :)

Baby Hat

2008-01-13T19:54:00.000-05:00

One of my friends did her own rendition of this hat pattern, which I got to see when we were at a playdate. OH SO CUTE!! So of course, I set out to try out my own rendition (she didn't give me the website, I had to search it out). The pattern is translated from a Norwegian pattern, and I don't know about you, but I've never even *seen* a 2.5mm circular needle (I believe that's a 1 1/2 size, US). And of course, I wanted to knit it right away instead of waiting until I got a chance to go to a yarn shop, so I had to go with what I had. I *do* have a size 3 circular needle, which I figured I could use and get a fairly small gauge, and the Patons Classic Wool Merino comfortably knits to a pretty small gauge, so I decided to go with that from my stash. The gauge in the pattern is 28 stitches to 10 cm (about 4 inches), so instead I wound up with 24 stitches per 4 inches with the combo I used. I wanted to make a 12 month size hat, so I calculated out how many inches it would be using their gauge and then used that to decide to cast on109 stitches. That puts the in between straight stockingette sections at 16 stitches instead of 18 or 19.

Ok, I'm off to knit. I'll let you know how it goes!

Finished Braidy

2008-01-09T08:55:00.002-05:00

I finished it, finally. And just in time to give it away as a christmas present. It turned out well, but I think if I were to do it again, I'd go with the worsted weight and a smaller gauge. probably a 6x1 rib. The chunky yarn was just a bit too thick, I think, but good for a men's scarf. I'm extremely happy with how the cabling turned out, though.

Braidy

2007-12-15T17:44:00.000-05:00

I saw the new Gap Donegal Scarf and decided I LOVE it. But... I don't want to buy it, because to just have it isn't enough, even though it's being sold at a reasonable price for a hand-knit scarf, and in a month or two I could buy it on a lovely deep discount. I want to KNIT it. I want to do it myself. I HAVE TO!! It's a fairly simple pattern, and it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Doesn't it look cool? That's the Gap pic... hope it's ok if I use that. If not, here's the link I'll post mine when it's done.

Here's my pattern for it, I'm calling it Braidy. It won't be exactly the same because I believe they used a worsted weight yarn, and 6x1 rib which you might consider, too, adjusting your cables and needle size according , but....

Braidy:

Yarn: wool ease "chunky" I used the "charcoal" colorway.

Needles: Size 11 straights (8.0 mm) (or size needed to obtain gauge - or at least be close)

Gauge: 14st =4 inches in 4x1 rib

BTW... please let me know if you use this pattern... I'm curious if anyone will :)

4x1 rib:
Row 1 - p1 *k4, p1 repeat from *
Row 2 - k1 *p4, k1 repeat from *

Cable sequence :
Row 1: p1, k4p1, k4p1 slip next 5 stitches onto cable needle hold to front of work, k4p1, K4P1 from cable needle. work remainder of row in 4x1 rib.
Rows 2 - 6: Work in 4x1 rib starting w/row 2
Row7: p1 k4 p1, *slip next 5 stitches onto cable needle and hold to back of work, K4P1, K4P1 from cable needle. repeat from * once more, K4P1
Rows 8-12: work in 4x1 rib starting w/ row 2
Row 13: p1, *slip next 5 stitches onto cable needle hold to front of work, k4p1, K4P1 from cable needle. repeat from * twice more.
Rows 14-18: work in 4x1 rib starting w/ row 2
Row 19: work as row 7
Rows 20-24: work in 4x1 rib starting w/ row 2
Row 25: work as row 1

Pattern:
CO 31 stitches.
Work 4x1 rib for 12 inches, then work cable sequence.
Work 4x1 rib again for 3 feet (or 36 inches, if you prefer) , then work cable sequence again.
Work 12 inches of 4x1 rib then bind off rib-wise.

I'm only through the first cable sequence right now but I'll post the picture of my finished object when I get a chance. Enjoy!

More pics:
I'd like to add that I checked out the original gap version (which is for women, and a bit daintier than the one I made) and it's definitely made from worsted, but has the same 4x1 rib. If you're making it for a woman, you might prefer to use a worsted weight yarn, although it'll take an extra skein of it, I suspect. You might also make it a bit shorter, depending on how long you like your scarf, but the one I made was intended for a man.

Cupcakes for Madalyn

2007-12-06T15:41:00.000-05:00

As a christmas gift for my niece, I'm making the mini-cupcakes from the book "Itty-bitty Nursery" by Susan B. Anderson. I haven't done much crocheting in a LONG time, but all in all I think it turned out pretty well. Sorry the picture is so mediocre. Now I just have to do 3 more......

Coasters

2007-12-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

As one of my ideas for christmas gifts, I've decided to do felted coasters. I used Patons SWS (soy wool stripes) for it. I really liked the lopi-ish style single-ply of the SWS. It's one thing I really liked about Lamb's pride, too. Here's the initial swatch at 9 inches by 7 inches. I cast on 25 stitches on size 10 1/2 needles, then worked it in stockingette. I'm just doing one big long piece to get the rest of the coasters done. Much more efficient, since I'm cutting it anyway.

Here's the swatch after it was felted. It's now 6 inches by 5 inches.

I then used a coaster I have as a guide and cut the felt into square coasters. They're just shy of 4 inches square.
I like it better post cut - the sharp edges look nicer than the messy felted edges of the original swatch, imo. The striping of the yarn turned out really well, too! I'm very happy with the way it turned out... now to do the rest....

Eye Heat thingy.

2007-11-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

What would you call it? For some reason I have no idea. Heating pad? Anyway, it's done but not felted yet.

Here's a pic:

So now I'm thinking I'm going to make coasters using Patons Soy Wool Stripes (SWS) as holiday gifts for family members, so I just started a swatch to see how it felts .

It knits like a dream, though. I'm really enjoying it. It's soft and slippery as wool yarn goes and looks so pretty.......

My Knitting ADD is at it again....

2007-11-19T17:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have unfinished projects with a timeline, but.......

I've had the worst sinus headaches of my life the last few days and have been doing my best to treat them sans antibiotics (because I'm not interested in seeing a doctor, honestly), so I've been doing the ol' snort-the-salt-water-up-the-nose treatment that my mom highly recommends. Yes, it's been helping, but not really enough. So, I've also been putting heat packs on my face. Mmmmm... lovely heat making my headache feel better.

So, while under the darkness of the lovely heat pack, I was thinking... I bet I could *make* a lovely felted heat pack. So, that's the plan. I'll post the pattern when I'm done.

A Necessary Evil

2007-11-14T11:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right... rolling the tangled yarn into a ball.

Why yarn isn't sold in balls, I'll never understand. By the end of the skein I'm almost always rolling it up into a ball to save my sanity. This is by no means my favorite activity, as you may have guessed. In case you've never had the pleasure, it goes like this

Step 1... notice that the yarn keeps tangling up making you stop your knitting/crocheting/whatever you're doing every few stitches in order to loosen up enough yarn for you to make a few more stitches

Step 2... you decide (after much frustration) that you must put down what you are doing and take on the task of rolling the yarn into a ball so that you may continue in peace and sanity

Step 3... Put down your fun project, and pick up giant knot of yarn. It's important to understand, that by giant knot I don't mean one huge knot but a multitude of knots forming a large conglomeration and that it's sneering at you, taunting you to untie it.

Step 4... start dutifully pulling at the end and wrapping the yarn around your fingers, stopping after practically every wrap to wrestle with said multitude of knots.

Step 5... get frustrated and throw the giant knot across the room screaming profanities at said knot.

Step 6... dig out hard liquor from wherever you're storing it and take a swig.

Step 7... kick giant knot hoping you can badger it into submission

Step 8... take another swig of liquor and turn back to carefully wrapping your yarn into a ball

Step 9... throw yarn across the room and encourage your toddler (or cat) to wander off with it, never to be seen again.

Step 10... sober up and drive to the yarn store for a new skein that it still beautifully organized into a skein.

Ok, so maybe that's not really how it went, but that's about how it feels like it COULD go......

Obsessive Thoughts

2007-11-11T17:17:00.001-05:00

So, I've been hearing a lot about recycling yarn by finding old (or new?) cheap sweaters and taking them apart to use the yarn. And being the obsessive person that I am, I can't stop THINKING about all the beautiful yarn just waiting for me to come along and rescue it from horrid sweaters. I've been checking out the sale racks at Old Navy, looking for ginormous sweaters (as big as I can find) that I can then dismantle and transform into beautiful yarn for my own use. MUAHAHAHAHAHA *evil grin*

I've even been reading about people taking the sweaters apart and then twisting that yarn together with other yarn to make thicker weight yarn, and also dying the yarn to make gorgeous new iterations of the lovely fibers. AND I saw someone (who know's how many are out there!) selling recycled yarn to which they have done just that! *drool*

So, now, being an avid knitter and yarn junkie, I am stuck obsessing over doing this to unsuspecting knitwear. You may be interested to know that I even have been eying my sweaters that have been sitting around for .... well, clearly for too long... and even ones that I wear frequently, to use for this luxurious yarn-finding/making expedition. Stay tuned, I will prevail!

Responsibilities...

2007-11-09T11:08:00.000-05:00

Tonight my dad and step-mom are coming for the weekend. I should be cleaning... but I WANT to knit!! Here's what I'm working on now...

It's the Matinee Coat from Debbie Bliss's "simply baby" That picture is from a while ago, I've finished the other front and am part way up one sleeve.

Welcome to my world

2007-11-08T14:10:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd start off by posting an intro to myself. Here I am, 26, mother of two, and lately, avid knitter. I'm feeling like my blog will be based mostly on my journey through crafting (knitting/sewing/crocheting) my way into oblivion, but I guess that has the possibility to change with the moment. Here I am, for all the world to see. Welcome to my world.

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2004-01-02T12:43:00.001-05:00

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