Marie Grace Designs

Tiny shoes and Piecework magazine

Well the little doll now has her little shoes. Thanks so much for the compliments on her as well as the requests for a pattern. Its an idea I've been fiddling with for a while now and I can say that I am moving in that direction. There's a bit more to do (I'm think'in she needs a sweater) and some logistics to work out but she'll be back soon.

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Have you seen the latest issue of Piecework? Its a fabulous little magazine, one I have a subscription to. This issue is the 3rd Annual Historical Knitting issue and includes the beautiful hat on the cover from no other than Alice Starmore. How can you not love that?

But here's what really got me... I'm tell'in you there may not be any Knitting Police but I do think there is some sort of Knitting Karma or fairy or something because just when I started feeling really clever for having figured out the 2 socks at once thing this falls on my head...

2 socks at once... one inside the other?!? Good grief!

Sock knitters are a clever people.

Socks and stuff...

So here's my socks... 2 on one circular needle...

Hmmmm... not quite done, huh. Not very impressive. Looks like ears... weird little animal ears.

There must be something else laying around here I can show today. Something a bit more "done". Something I made... hmmmm....

I made coffee...

Looks like I need a refill. Lemme see what else I can find... 

Oh, here ya go. Not quite done-done but a lot done.... 

All cut and ready to sew. From left to right:

A blouse for me, a dress for Tater, a dress for Doodle, a blouse for Tater. Not bad.

Here's somethin' else...

Muslins for slips for both the girls. The dresses (see above) are an eyelet material meaning they have itty bitty wholes all over... which isn't good. So, we need slips. Pretty slips with tiny rufflies around the hems and across the top of the bodice. 

Not too bad... started socks, made coffee, cut 4 sewing projects after making several muslins and adjusting patterns. A bit more impressive.

Oh, wait... there's one more...

I got a little sidetracked yesterday and made another doll. Isn't she cute?

My own pattern for the doll and her dress and her hair. Didn't know I was so into dollies did ya?

Baby needs a new pair of shoes... guess I better get mov'in.

Happy Day!

A fresh new week...

Thank you to everyone who had some suggestions about my grill emergency. We're waiting on our upgrade replacement but honestly I wish I had gone the give-me-my-dang-money-back route and just bought another one from a different company. Something tells me that after the run-around I've already gotten that route would have been even more frustrating so we'll just see how this goes.

As far as my washer/dryer... Mac Daddy has fixed them more times than I can count... the most recent being on Valentine's day 2009 when he put a new clutch in the washer. Right now they are both running okay but they are old and there isn't much left of them that hasn't been replaced. Could be they'll keep going for a long while yet (I have my fingers crossed). 

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It was good to hear that so many of you (quite possibly all of you) are multi-craft-al. Its just so much fun to be able to do so many crafty things. Different things for different moods and different occasions. Its really inspiring to see something in a book or magazine or even a store and be able to say "I can do that!". 

This weekend I decided to take some off of knitting sort of as a weird reward. I finished up my deadline project at the end of the week and don't have anything else under a time constraint right now so I thought I'd do some much anticipated sewing. 

Now, its not that I need a break from knitting as in I-knit-too-much-and-need-to-stop-for-a-few-days but more like I'm-so-consumed-by-my-knitting-that-I-never-stop-to-do-anything-else. Seeing as how I've promised the girls (and myself) some new spring wardrobe additions I figured if I didn't actually set aside specific time it would never get done.

Well.... I had a blast! I forgot how much I enjoy all the tracing, measuring, cutting, fiddling, turning, fabric digging that is garment sewing.

You've probably seen some of those beautiful Japanese sewing books that have gotten so popular...

Since I set aside the entire weekend (seriously... I didn't even check my email for a full 48 hours which is unheard of) I had plenty of time to draft a few patterns from the books. Doodle (aka Daughter the Elder) was away at a friends house so I worked on a blouse for me and a long sleeved blouse for Tater. Gotta have a body present when drafting a new pattern so I'll need to start one for Doodle one day this week after schooling.

Japanese patterns do take a bit more time and work but are really worth it. Japanese sizing standards run much smaller than American, the sizes in these books really only translate to sizes up to American 6 or 8. The standards are also shorter... so I always need to add lots of length for me, but I have to do the same thing for American patterns anyway so no big deal. 

I'm not sure what the draw of the patterns are in general but I want every one I see. The fit is simple yet not sloppy, casual but pretty, light but still fashionable... all the things I am not, HA!

Generally speaking Japanese patterns are also designed to fit woman with a small bust... that would be me. I have the most difficulty with American patterns in the bust department because it would seem that Americans are enamored with woman's boobs and it comes through even in the cleavage diving, tightly fitted, bust dart toting sewing patterns. That's great if you have 'em... I don't have 'em.

So I drafted and traced and cut and made muslins. I will speech you just as strongly about muslins as I will about gage swatches... skip this step and shame on you! Don't come crying to me when you're stuff doesn't fit. 

Here's Tater modeling her muslin...

Looked pretty good to me. I did make a minor adjustment to the sleeve though... its a fitted sleeve and was a bit tight around the elbow so I widened it just a tad. Tater ends up needing a smaller size but with a longer fit (just like her Mama) so I generally cut the patterns along the smaller size but take all the lengths to the next size. 

So, muslins are finished, pattern masters are adjusted, and garment fabric is cut but that's as far as I got. Really that's a lot though for all the prep work the Japanese patterns take.

We also made muslins for a dress pattern from My Favorite Things... the Prairie Girl pattern for both the girls. I managed to get Doodle's done before she left for the weekend. So those will be cut soon as well.

I did a wee bit of knitting also... those 2 socks at one time. I must agree with Elizabeth on this one... 2 needles was a bit fiddly so I moved to 2 socks on one long circular and that's going better.

Aside from all that... the in-between time over the weekend was spent puttering around the house and taxying kids here and there. Saturday was really cold but bright and sunny and dry so we brought the goat kids up from the barn to run in the pasture for a few hours. They were so happy and springy and bouncy to be out in the sun and the fresh air. I can't wait for grass to start growing and the sun to start warming. I've heard more and more birds twittering form the back deck and the chickens have started laying again... so spring must be coming!

Friday vent... consumer style...

Okay... be warned... vent coming... could contain curse words...

Ya know that louver-ly grill we got not too long ago? The one I posted about that cooks up yummy grilled sandwiches and burgers and flat bread concoctions in mere minutes? The one with the removable cooking plates that keep me and my clean-freak-ism so dang happy?

Well, it died. Already.

We fell completely and madly in love with it and then it just gave up the ghost right smack in the middle of sizzl'in up a batch of the thickest burgers a woman ever grilled on a counter top. Just quit. The sizzl'in just sort of dwindled off to sporadic sputtering and then... nothing.

Mac Daddy tried to resuscitate it... but it was gone. It was 2 weeks old.

So, of course the next day I put in a call to Breville. 

Disclaimer: I have all the dated paperwork and such to go along with this so it isn't hearsay...

I was very calm and not really too concerned. I had registered my product and was sure it was just a fluke and that it would be all be straightened out in no time. I explained the situation to the nice customer service lady and she typed on her computer and within 24 hours I had a shipping label. I was to mail the dead grill back to them and they would send me a new one. Great! 

So after days and days of the kids and Mac Daddy whining about not being able to grill their own lunch and wondering what marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, and chocolate chips on bread would be like out of the grill.... a box was delivered by Fed Ex. 

This is where it gets good... it was the wrong grill. Not just the wrong grill... a smaller/cheaper/the grill plates don't come out grill. I was now officially pissed.

I called Breville again... explained why I was so pissed from point A to point B and waited patiently for the customer service lady to brighten my day. She didn't.

We're so sorry for the mix up. And, as it turns out, we don't have any of the grill you need in stock... we can't send you one because we don't have one.

Well... you need to do something because the el-cheapo special you sent me is worth HALF the price of what I paid and is HALF the size and I couldn't feed my 5 year old on this thing never mind a family of 6!

Ma'am... we'd be happy to send you a Wok to make up for the price difference.

A Wok?!? WTF am I gonna do with a WOK?!? I bought a GRILL not a Wok! A panini grill for shit's sake. I don't want a f&%@#ing Wok.

So now I'm wondering if they didn't send the smaller grill on purpose in the hopes that I'd just keep it and be happy... seeing as how they don't have the proper grill to replace mine.

Til it was all said and done (I'll spare you the rest of my stale one liners and creative curse words) they are sending me the upgrade from my original grill. The upgraded model is bigger and has more features and retails for more but guess what... the grill plates are not removable.

Are you getting a clearer picture of my clean-freak-ish-ness?

I'm really just totally deflated. Over a grill. Help me.

As consumers... we are all screwed. I went with a brand name product thinking I'd get higher quality and all I got was screwed out of my dream grill. Are there no actually trustworthy companies left?

We are going to need to need to purchase a new washer and dryer sometime this year and I'm just dreading it.... its one thing to get screwed on a small kitchen appliance but the thought of having something like this happen with a washer/dryer just makes my mouth go all numb.

Being a grown up sucks. Having a budget sucks. Stress sucks. 

I'm gonna go hug my yarn now...

It was broke!!!

If you stopped by today (which I know you did) and tried to leave a comment on the previous post (which I know you did) and weren't able to its because somehow my settings had been changed... don't know how... don't know why... but I fixed it so now you can leave that comment:-)

So go do it!

-Marie Grace

The Art of Multi-craft-al-ness

Its been an observation of mine that, generally speaking, most people who have an interest in a craft tend to dabble in more than one crafting genre.

I would guess that crafting is a way to relax, or stretch one's creativity, or maybe just a way of producing something useful.

Though knitting is my favorite addiction outlet it certainly isn't my only pathway to obsession creativity. I'm almost as likely to bring home yards of fabric I have no idea what to do with as I am to do the same with hanks of yarn.

As happy as I am to see one of the kids running out the door in one of my hand-knits, I'm just as proud to see them sleeping soundly under a favorite pieced quilt.

My book shelf is crammed with knitting books, general sewing books, quilting books, smocking books, Sashiko, embroidery, and several variations of fabric origami. I have an uncontrollable urge... not to just collect random stuff... but to understand how to do it. 

I've tried paper tole, tatting, cross stitch, potato stamping, t-shirt dyeing, flower arranging, and scrap booking. 

My yarn cabinet is full of wool, cotton, and silky hanks and resides right next door to my fabric cabinet which is full of everything from baby-wale corduroy to cotton lawn, batiste, and calico.

Patterns? Honey, I have patterns for things to knit, things to crochet, things to cut apart and sew back together, things to fold-stitch-press-stitch, and things to wrap-tie-and pin.

Some new skills stick and others are soon lost and forgotten but one thing is for sure... I have to manipulate everything at least once just so I'll know if I like it (or not).

So... what about you? Are you a crafting clepto? An uncontrollable collector? A super-producer of hand stitched-knit-poked-folded-pressed-thingers?

Maybe you draw (I can't) or paint (only walls) or sculpt (only with play-dough).

Or maybe you really are craftily monogamous? 

My Wooly Valentine Knitting Pattern

I don't think its a big secret that I'm partial to the general shape of a raglan. Be it right side up or top side down there's just something about the regularity of the raglan seam that either grows to its full measure one step at a time or dwindles away little by little.

So it won't be any big surprise when you get a good look at my newest design; a cabled raglan. This one is worked in the classic bottom up method joining the in-progress sleeves and body together at the underarms. From there the raglan lines establish a central meeting place for the cable panels as they are decreased bit by bit. Here they meet, mirror images of one another, keeping that balance that so attracts me to the shape in the first place.

I've tinkered with the X's and O's that remind me of childish love notes for some time knowing they are part nostalgic and part cheesy but unable to stop myself from doodling them amongst design sketches. They finally took shape in this deeply textured raglan. My initial swatches were in a gorgeous blue wool but when it came time to gather the wool for the full project I just couldn't bring myself to use anything other than a rich red... again nostalgic with a slightly cheesy undertone as Valentine's Day was fast approaching.

If you're at all familiar with cables and traveling stitches you'll find this to be a rather straight-forward set up. Charts are full body width and include the ribbings for both body and sleeve cuffs. The chart keys are given for both traditional cable needle crossings and working the crossings without a cable needle. This is a new feature I'm trying to see what sort of feedback it might bring. I've also included individual panel measurements on the charts to make dependable swatching easier.

And yes, I know its too late for Valentine's Day but I've always believed in doing something special for someone special any day of the year rather than waiting until the calendar reminds us. I can see this design in that original deep blue, or a soft pink, or a spring green and it would still be full of hugs and kisses.

Sizes
Children’s sizes 4-6 (8-10, 12-14) years.

Finished Measurements
Chest: 29.5 (35, 39) inches.
Length: 19.5 (22.5, 24.5) inches.

Note: always choose which size is best by the measurement in inches rather than the number size.

Yarn
Green Mountain Spinnery’s
Wonderfully Wooly
100% New England Wool
4 ounces / 113 grams per skein.
250 yards / 228 meters per skein.
4 (5, 6) skeins.
Sample shown in color “Trillium”.

Needles
US #7 (4.5 mm) 24 inch circular needle
US #7 double point needles
US # 6 (4.0 mm) 24 inch circular needle
US #6 (4.0 mm) double point needles
OR the size needle you need to obtain appropriate gauge.

Extras
Stitch markers, cable needle, waste yarn or stitch holders.

Skill level
Experienced.

Skills Needed
Working from a chart, working in the round, cabling.

Gauge
17sts/25 rows = 4 inches over stockinette stitch.
*See charts for specific cable panel measurements.

Price: $6.00
Your printable pattern will be immediately downloadable in Adobe PDF (v5.0 or later) format

A Very Blustery Day...

It seems so fitting that today I get to post the finished Pooh jammies since it has been an incredibly scary a very blustery night. There's a cold front roaring in and it woke me from a sound sleep at about 3:30 am. Lots of people are without power and frankly I'm shocked that our power is still on after several flickers throughout the night and morning.

So, here's Tater's Pooh jammies compliments of Mom's fabric stash shopping I did a few weeks ago. The pants are from the chunk of classic Pooh fabric but the piece wasn't big enough for the shirt too so we settled on a complimentary blue cotton.

The pattern is My Favorite Thing's Little Sleep Well. I really love this company's patterns. They're  simple and clear and I've never had one turn out badly. I really like that the pattern as written is simple and rather basic but is also the kind of pattern that can easily be modified and messed with to make more adventurous versions if you so choose.

The only modification I made this time was to add length to the sleeves. The pattern gives options for short sleeves or 3/4 sleeves but I wanted a full long sleeve. As a ridiculously tall being the only thing I've found to be more difficult than finding pants long enough to cover my ankles is finding sleeves long enough to cover my wrists. This has made me quite bitter and has guaranteed that I will never own shirts with 3/4 sleeves or capri pants. It doesn't matter how cute they are I just don't feel comfortable. Of course, this has nothing to do with Tater's jammies but since they are meant to be colder weather type jammies they needed a full sleeve anyway.

I'm still thanking my Pfaff for the perfect buttonholes it so kindly makes for me. Nothing is worse than finishing an entire project only to have it ruined in the end by bad buttonholes. 

On the knitting front... I'm stilling clicking away at hats for tomorrow night's knitting group get-together. I certainly don't have an impressive stack to take but I suppose any time is a good time to donate to the local clothing bank so I'll just keep going and take them in myself when I have a few. There's always next winter to plan for as well and I've been thinking of making myself a goal of knitting at least 1 hat a month for the donation pile so that I'll have a good start by the time next winter rolls around.

'Round the bend...

I've realized recently that I'm having "issues" with my double point needles. 

I can remember being a newer knitter and being terrified of them. I can remember the frustration in trying to become one with the 4 or the 5 just so I could knit around and around without a seam to sew.

I learned to use dpns because I wanted to make seamless sleeves on seamless raglans. Then I figured out it was also the recommended way to make hats and mittens and so many other knitterly things so I figured I had done right by my self learning how to do the dpn thing. I've been doing small round things that way ever since.

But here lately for some reason the dpns make me sort of roll my eyes and kind of sigh a resigned sort of sigh really because... I just don't want to. I decided on the sideways garter stitch hat just because I didn't feel like going around on the little set of pokey sticks... but there's really no good reason. 

Lately I feel like I'm just slogging along with the dpns even on my own designs. Knitting in the round still totally floats my boat but the dpn thing... I'm so just... I don't know... irritated by it.

Then, totally by accident, I ended up with this and suddenly it all made sense...

Now, I know that the whole Cat Bordhi socks on 2 circulars thing is far from new. I know that sock knitters can knit 2 socks on 4 sticks or 1 sock on 2 circs or 2 socks on a twig if you give them enough time but I'm trying to explain myself so give me a minute.

Point A... I'm still trying to catch the Sock Illness that everybody else has and

Point B... Cat Bordhi is just way cool and

Point C... I now know what my dpn problem is and a side note what part of my sock problem is:

Cat states...

"Knitting socks on two sleek circulars is like taking an express train, while knitting socks on the traditional four or five double-points is more like taking a milk-run train that stops at every little village along the way. While knitting a pair of socks on two circulars, you will pause for about three hundred fewer intersections than when using a traditional, double-pointed needle method."

DING!

See, one of the reasons I love knitting so much is the ebb and flow sort of feel. The rhythm of the stitches and the movements. The necessary stopping at every corner with dpns to reorganize sort of disrupts the whole flow. 

I've toyed with knitting small circumferences on circulars before with the magic-loop method and liked it fine but never really put it into my "regular" knitting routine until recently. I guess I've been open to rethinking some things so when I stumbled upon this copy of Socks Soar it was just the right time.

And really its the best time because I'm working on some in-the-round things and one or them has a good bit of purling going on and honestly I hate purling from one dpn to the next. Circulars to the rescue?

So now I'm wondering if maybe... just maybe... I'll actually finish a pair of knit socks. What I'd really like is to knit both socks at the same time. Again... I know Sock Knitters already have all this figured out but its relatively new territory for me. So I'm panning to sit and fiddle with the 2 circs method and hoping I'll figure out (or maybe Cat will tell me in the book) how to get both socks on there at one time. 

My ultimate sock excursion would be both socks at the same time from the toe-up. Maybe?

Old memories and new quilts...

The very best times of my childhood are the times I spent with my Nana and Pappy. They are both gone now and I miss them terribly but they will never fade or be replaced by anything else I ever do in my lifetime. I have my Nana to thank for the person I am today and for my love of family, kids, and crafting.

I remember when I was really little Nana and Pap still went to a real dairy to shop. I loved going along on those days to see the cows and collect up the things we needed to buy. Nana always let me choose a little something to take along home... a package of candy buttons, a coloring book, something small to help keep me busy. One of my very favorite things were those little books of punch-out paper dolls.

I spent a lot of time with Nana and Pap when I was really little and as I got older my life got more complicated and less endearing. We can glaze over the stuff in the middle and just get to the part where I say that I suppose the things I find comforting and fulfilling are those things that remind me of Nana be it paper dolls, sewing, coal stoves, or creaky wood floors. 

I crave all those little things and try to find ways to weave tiny bits into my daily life even if they don't always seem to fit. I prefer to think of myself as "eclectic".

So when a friend called to tell me about the current issue of Love of Quilting magazine and the paper doll quilt project in it I was sunk. I get all fluffy just looking at it...

Not only does the fabric have pretty little paper dolls but there's even clothes to cut out and fuse to felt or fleece and a dainty little folded envelope to stitch to the quilt back that holds all the little clothes. Sigh...

I have never purchased a quilt kit before but after a fruitless search both at my favorite quilt shop and online for the particular fabrics I gave up and ordered the kit. Turns out the kit is on backorder so I'll be here biting my nails and holding my breath until I hear something about a ship date. Ugh!

But my luck wasn't all bad 'cause look what else was in the same magazine...

There's sheep on that there quilt! The hearts are a little folk-art for my taste but the sheep are adorable! I might have to do some reconfiguring and combine those sheep with something other than folksie hearts. Maybe that will keep my sewing side busy until the paper doll kit shows up.

Knitting-wise I'm working on that deadline project and still trying to get a few hats done to donate on Friday. Then I'm planning to turn my design thoughts to some spring-ish directions.