Author: Caryn

Doll blanket swatch

On By CarynIn Craft

When I need to swatch my yarn work, I make the tiny sample of stitches the size of my youngest’s doll blankets. I get the data and she gets more throws for her doll house.

Doll blanket sized swatch (not cat sized)

I needed to practice the Kitchner stitch to finish off a double knit project, so made a swatch.

Reverse side of the double knit swatch

Making the doll blanket to practice the stitch was a good decision. I messed up the first couple passes, but by the end had the rhythm down and knew about how tight my stitches needed to be.

Kitchner bind off for double knit

Kitchner stitches are used to make a seamless graft between two pieces of knitting. It is usually done on two needles, but I found this video that shows the variations needed to work off one needle, for double knit items. Fabulous.

Ice leaves

On By CarynIn art, Flora

The ONLY good thing about rain that freezes when it hits the ground is the discovery of ice leaves.

Ice leaf

I was sliding my way out to the chickens when I noticed all the leaves I stepped on looked like broken glass. Hm. Yup, I could peel the layer of ice off and get a shard of crystal leaf. Here is a short video. I would have investigated the phenomenon further, but it was raining. Raining. And freezing.

Shearing Sheep

On By CarynIn Livestock

The Livestock Conservancy has released a quality 12 minute video on good sheep shearing and the importance of humane animal handling. I think it is important to understand our history and our future with the animals we’ve nurtured.

https://livestockconservancy.org/resources/how-to-shear-a-sheep-and-why/

Plus, the more people interested in working with natural materials, the more demand there will be, thus more farmers than can make a living from their animals, which means more variety available. It is a happy circle.

Taking it on the road

On By CarynIn Craft

My rainbow scarf has been languishing next to my chair at home. The problem is that I can’t stop in the middle of a row, and with brioche knitting each row requires two passes to complete. At home I am frequently required to lay down my craft for a pet or kid urgency, and I am really uncomfortable stopping mid row on this piece. So it is time for a move. I have bravely put the pool noodle holder into a project bag and moved the project to the car. I was quite surprised not only how well the section of pool noodle fits in the bag, but that the whole assembly works well as a car-rider-line project. Now we’ll see how progress goes getting attention for an hour a day, five days a week!

Rainbow scarf project moved to a project bag, with split pool noodle holder

Happy Cactus

On By CarynIn Flora
Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) in bloom

My Thanksgiving Cactus is doing double time. Many of the stems have two buds rather than one like last year. I’m still not doing anything special: it hangs in a northern facing window, and I water it twice a week. Every few months I add fertilizer to the water for all my plants, but this is haphazard at best, even though I have a reminder on my phone to do so. This is the window that leads to the catio, so often it is open below where the cactus hangs. The plant is often festooned with house spider webs. I am bemused that it is happy, thriving, and blooming, but I certainly enjoy that it is.