Category: Crafts

Stacked Hearts and Cables Hat

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I created and released a knitted hat pattern a couple months ago, but I was unintentionally neglecting the blog at that point and failed to write about it. But I am happily remedying that today. Introducing the Stacked Hearts and Cables Hat!

This hat is knit top-down with alternating lace and cable sections, ending with two inches of 3 x 2 ribbing. The optional pom-pom at the top adds an extra fun touch, especially when made from the same Malabrigo Rios yarn as the hat. I love the way the cut ends of the Rios look.

I had originally bought the green yarn for an incentive for myself at Christmas to get some presents done, and it ended up taking until June. Actually, I didn’t even finish the things, just moved them around on the list to be presents for this year.

You can find the pattern on LoveCrafts, Ravelry, my Ko-Fi shop, and my Etsy shop. It’s a PDF download in each of those places, so the choice really comes down to which is most convenient for you.

An 18-month Shawl

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I knew this shawl had been hanging arounf for a while, but I did not realize I had started it in February 2019. That means it took me almost 18 months, ignoring the fact that it apparently took three attempts to get started, from start to finish.

Not that I worked on it consistently, of course. I was focusing on it for a while, especially when it was small and a row took under 10 minutes.

Once I ran out of the pink, which was some hand-dyed Knit Picks Shadow Bare that I had dyed with drink powder, and moved on to the white, the rows started taking longer and I started getting bored more easily. It started getting set aside for longer intervals, though it did get dragged along to sports practices.

Once I ran out of white and hit the blue, the rows were taking at least 30 minutes each. Not to mention the sheer amount of markers I needed and how paperclips get tangled into stitches so often.

Still, I kept dragging it along whenever we went out, because that is how I could force myself to work on it without getting distracted by other things I’d rather be doing.

But sometimes I would be able to focus at home while doing other projects that didn’t require my full focus.

It eventually got to the point where each row was taking an hour, so I tried to fit in partial rows whenever I could.

Don’t even ask how long the picot edge binding off took. It was spread over days, possibly even weeks. I honestly can’t remember at this point because it took so long. But it is finished, it is giant, and it is up in my Etsy shop.

I had originally intended to write up the pattern for this, but I don’t think anyone really wants to make a shawl this big that takes this long. Maybe I will revisit it and make some adjustments to reduce the size and write it up smaller.

A pink and white shawl propped up on various items in a large spiral, showing off the immense size.

Masks, Masks, and more Masks!

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Back in March I set out to use all the cotton fabric I had in my stash to make fabric face masks to donate. I pulled every bit of plain cotton I had out and ironed it, then set to work cutting as many mask pieces as I could.

I didn’t have much of the thin elastic for ear straps, so I made as many of those as I could, and then started making the ones with tie straps. The best part of that is they are completely adjustable and can fit very snugly, no matter what your head size. I’ve had littles as young as 2 wear the same size I do.

As the experts began suggesting everyone should wear non-medical masks when leaving the house, I changed from exclusively planning to donate to selling them as well. Through selling them, I was able to buy more fabric that I could dedicate to making more masks and then donate one for every one sold.

A little less than a month after starting the project, I was able to send a box of 66 masks off to the Sew Together project put together by the shoe company Tieks. I was still awaiting some fabric at that point, but I wanted to be sure I got what I had available sent out.

Once I finally got the last batch of masks finished, I decided I was only going to leave them up on Etsy until the end of June. I just got the box sent off today, so now I have the final count:

127 donated, 42 sold through Etsy, and about 60 sold through Instagram/ text/ kept for myself (having trouble counting it up, and probably forgetting about some). So in all I’ve managed to make probably 230 masks, and now I’ve taken some time off from sewing. My poor little machine definitely needed a break.