My First Spring Project

My hand is finally better.  I still must go in for nerve damage surgery when I return from Florida but in the meantime I’ve been working on the Piccante Cardigan.  I’m using TLC Cotton Plus and I must say I just LOVE this yarn!

I had finished the entire back and one front section when I decided to rip everything out and start over.  You see, the pattern is very attractive but there were a couple of problems with the way it was designed. Firstly, the ribbing is worked at the beginning of each front and back.  This causes a break in the pattern when the underarm seams are sewn together.  Instead of having ribs separated by 3 stitches, at the underarm seams you have ribs separated by 6 stitches.  In addition, the stitch pattern for the body caused a similar problem at the seams.

To solve these two issues, I worked the body of the sweater first, sewed up the side seams and then worked the ribbing all around the bottom edge.  I also kicked the stitches up a notch by changing the sc,sc,sc,fpdc to hdc,hdc,hdc,fptr.  This resulted in a band of ribbing that was much looser and more like the body.  The original ribbing was very stiff and dense.

This sweater really turned out beautifully.  Because I had changed yarn, I also changed the hook to an H and was able to work the next smaller size.

I’ve still been working on the redecorating of the house Paul and I bought in June.  Basically it was in good shape but it needed some up-dates.  As much as I’d like to re-do the kitchen cabinets, that project is not in the cards for the near future.  We’ve purchased all new appliances, painted, and put in a new floor.  This year we also plan to replace the counter and the lighting.  I opened up one of my cabinets by removing the doors and putting my contemporary dishes on display.  I really like this effect and it was entirely free!  The only thing I still have to do is to patch the holes where the doors were attached and iron on a strip of veneer to cover them.

Okay, so I’m off to Florida to visit my family!  I’ll be gone for a week.  My brother-in-law was kind enough to set up a spare laptop for my use so I won’t have to wean myself away from the computer after all!  But I won’t be blogging until I return.

This is my Mom and Dad on their 60th anniversary.  They live in West Palm Beach.  I haven’t seen them for about a year so it’s time to make my way down there. This photo is courtesy of Ron Wolf.

 

Going Green in the Kitchen

While we were traveling in our RV for the last 7 years, we had not been able to participate much in the green revolution.  Of necessity, I had to use disposables often.  We didn’t have the room to store a large quantity of dishes or linens.  In fact, we had a real problem with getting towels and rags to dry in the fifth wheel.  Now that we have a house, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to become more conscious of how much waste we have in our daily lives.   The first and easiest thing to eliminate was the handi-wipes that I was using for everything from dishes to cleaning the bathroom.  I made 10 dishcloths using Sugar and Cream cotton.  I have a small stash of cloths that I had purchased at bazaars but I needed enough to be able to get a fresh cloth each day.  In a couple of evenings I had worked up these cloths while watching TV.

 

V-Necked Cardigan

 

I had set out to make a cardigan and to write up the pattern as I was going along.  As often happens, I gave up the pattern writing and just winged the sweater.  Writing patterns is extremely tedious. My hat is off to the folks out there who design and write crochet patterns.  I’ve only ever written out a few patterns (they are here, on my blog) and then only for one size–mine!  I can’t imagine changing all the measurements and stitches to conform to other sizes.  One day I might give it a shot but don’t hold your breath!

 

Green Vest

This is another Melissa Leapman pattern.  I used Paton’s Grace Cotton for this vest.