Tag: Knitting2

A few of my stitching tools

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Morning all, thought I’d do a walk through of my favorite stitching tools. Let’s start with the sewing category.

Sewing

Starting with my treadle sewing machines… Singer model 66 from 1924. I’ve converted her to hand crank. She is just beautiful. Then we have the New Home machine. She is older, and still in the repair and upgrade mode. Lastly, the Brother lx3817. All 3 models are work horses, and I swear I have stitched miles through these machines.

For hand sewing, I have my huswiffe… I started with a singer sewing kit with zipper. I got it at Walmart and I modified it to fit my needs. This kit goes into whatever stitching bag I have running. It’s bright pink. Some mods I’ve made is adding some of my favorite thimbles, and I made a simple needle book I made. I swapped out the nippers for some older ones which were shaped like a crane. I added a sponge, a few needle threaders and a sponge as well as extra nippers. I grab this first for every stitching project which involves thread.

For individual tools, I buy my hand sewing needles in ultra fine. I get my thread in thrift stores. I buy older sewing kits and often there is thread there. My favorite nippers are generic. For thimbles, I have all makes and models. Individual tools here just don’t matter.

Why do I have 3 sewing machines when I have a working model 66 singer? For the same reason I have both a sports bra and another type of bra. They do different things.

Knitting and Crochet

I’m lumping these together as there is so much cross over in tools.

Pouches, makeup bags, coin purses.. little pouches as well. So many knitting notions get jumbled together. Small dollar store pouches for the win.

I get those kits of knitting notions, cheap just a couple of dollars, and they work exceptionally well. I spread them amongst my pouches of things, which fit into a makeup bag, and holy crap… knitterly gold.

Now here’s where I am a hypocrite. I have chiaogoo interchangeable needles, but then again, I have the cheapest needles as well. For everyday knitting needles, those that are to make dishcloths and such… I have cheap knock off sets of ten to fourteen inch straights. For crochet, whatever knock off set or partial set I can get anywhere. Yet the most expensive thing in any case is the chiaogoo.

Bags

I have every type of knitting bag or craft bag you could imagine. Weird, since I am a hermit. However, splitting up projects into their own bag with all the tools except for the huswiffe, makes a happy medium for me. I have a separate huswiffe with knitting/crochet specific tools. They both live together in a main pouch. My favorite, is a homemade one that I took a tshirt and made into a bag.

The final outcome

I have other tools, we aren’t talking about spinning or weaving quite yet. The 4 big ones, the sewing machines and the chiaogoo are big ticket items. The rest are generic or items that I bought in thrift stores. When an item wears out, holy crap, I’m out what, 50 cents? Not heart breaking.

I hope 2022 is treating you well. Hugs, take care, -L

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icord potholder on a knitting loom

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I have a double headed icord knitting loom. The side I am using is 5 pegs. Mainstay yarn, acrylic. I am using backstitch to sew it together as I knit.

The goal is to have it be about 10 inches in diameter for holding my skillet. Note: If you whack a piping hot skillet on these, they will melt together. However they usually will not start on fire.

I make about 1 to 2 of these per year as they get stained or lost over time.

Hope your night goes well. May the New Year be a blessing to you and yours. Hugs. -L

Attack of the killer UFO’s

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Morning.

Crap. I’ve been spending the last hour or so organizing my knitting tools. I have a big project bag for UFO’s. And they are evil.

Totally freaking evil. There’s the Pi shawls from heck. They were supposed to be done quite awhile ago. Then there is the project I started yesterday. The potholder made from i cord. Then there is the meetings shawl.

A meetings shawl is a memorized pattern that I can do while focusing on other things. It’s in crochet, and is a triangular granny square. Sighs. It’s still in progress. Though I found another skein of yarn for it.

The there is the other Pi shawl. The 10 stitch potholder, the slipper socks, the afghan, the sewing projects, the yada yada yada….

I love knitting and crochet. I love spinning yarn. We won’t talk about the spinning wheel lurking in the garage until I can get more room in the main house. Where am I going to find more room?!? I love weaving, thankfully, that’s a table top loom. I love sewing, and and and and………

Sighs. I’m a little overwhelmed, but several stitcherly projects are now settled in on my bed. I don’t have room for them anywhere else right now. I better get back to cleaning.

Hope your day is a good one. -L

Project bags

anonymousknitterLeave a comment

Morning all, on this cold winter morning, I want to talk about project bags.

Blackie Thomas on youtube does bushcraft survival/camping videos. He makes a mean decent meal over a tiny stove, and gives horse sense solutions to many problems. In one of his videos he gave me one heck of an idea.

Project bags.

Meaning, you put everything for the project in the bag. The smalls needed to complete it, (needles or hook, tape measure, row counter, stitch markers, snips, pattern and such) and the yarn. Put the smalls in a pouch, the pattern in a one gallon ziplock, and you are set.

Holy crap this works. For simple projects, having it all in one, is such a dream. Even for larger projects, I can protect the yarn in waiting for the next color switch with a ziplock or two.

Even the smalls can be separated by pouches. Okay, I have a bit of a pouch fetish, but to have it all set up and ready to go is fantastic. Having many projects on the go, I can simply grab the one I want and hit the car. All I need to do is grab my wallet and stick it in a hoodie pocket.

Talk about slick. Each project has its place. Each tool is cared for and not lost in a pile of holy crap. I am tickled pink.

So, I’m passing the idea on to you. We all have ziplocks, and if you are as obsessed as me, you may have a few purses and pouches around. Set it up. I have a laundry basket I keep all ufos in now, each in their own project bag.

Hugs. Hope the last of this year is better than the beginning for you. Take care, -L

More stitchery madness

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Morning, it’s time for a cuppa, and to get the chores for the morning done. This morning I ran into a video from #Coolirpa. She made an oversized fleece hoodie.

My fleece hoodie arrived on Monday last.

I want another, much more roomy one. Sighs. How do I get one, without breaking the bank?

Blankets. Those 3 dollar fleece blankets from Walmart. To buy the fabric costs more than I spent on my hoodie. To buy the blankets? Fractions of the cost.

So, off to the Walmart app to get a few fleece blankets, and a t-shirt needle. Sighs. I love my Hoodie, but I want it to be a little more roomy, a little more… Sighs.

Meanwhile, I have some obsessions. On Ravelry, there are these ten stitch blankets. IE blankets stitched on dpns. Hmm. I’m a little obsessed. I have the yarn, I have the time. I have multiple projects to finish first.

Other things I want to get done are pot holders. I crochet them, double yarn. I make them out of the scrap yarn and the crap yarn that I hate. What I end up doing is using two or three strands, and either tunisian crochet to make them, or garter stitch knit them.

Yes, crap yarn, if done thick enough, can make a pot holder. They are used to grab a hot pan to put on a trivet, not to be the trivet itself. So, fugly pot holders are constantly on the needles or hooks.

That’s about it for now. Take care. Will bug you again in the morning.

May your coffee be hot, and your day be peaceful. Hugs, -L