Cotton Rag Bath Mat

I've noticed some of the knitting club girls have been getting a little lazy lately. Our last meetings have been mostly eating, eating, chatting and a little more eating.

This is why I decided to post this tutorial by coco knits.

I think this is mat is a brilliant idea, specially because it is a very fast and easy knit, and also because you can make it out of recycled material. I hope it gets your knitting juices going girls!

Size

Approximately 18" wide and desired length. The sample is 36” long for a bathtub, it can be shorter for a smaller shower.

Materials

Yarn

Sample used two pre-washed twin size sheets ripped into 1 ½” strips and connected as per the rag knitting tutorial on cocoknits.com.

Needles

# 19 needles.

Gauge

Using # 19 needles over moss st, approximately 1 st per inch.

Abbreviations

CO – cast on

BO – bind off

st(s) – stitch(es)

c4b – cable 4 sts behind. Slip next 4 sts onto cable needle (in this case I used a chopstick) and hold at the back of your work. Knit 4 sts, then knit 4 from cable needle.

Directions

CO 26 sts.

Row 1, 3, 7 (RS): [k1, p1] four times, p1, k8, p1, [p1, k1] four times.

Row 2 and all WS rows: [k1, p1] four times, k1, p8, k1, [p1, k1] four times.

Row 5: [k1, p1] four times, p1, c4b, p1, [p1, k1] four times.

Repeat these 8 rows until you reach the desired length. BO on a row 1 of pattern.

Finishing

add fringe by cutting rag “yarn” into 4" long pieces and attaching to either edge as follows

Fold strip in half and pull the fold through the c.o. edge with a crochet hook:

Then push the ends through the loop you created and pull until it’s snug:

Headband Mania

Today was no chit-chat morning. Three ladies from the knitting club came over to my house to learn how to make the flower headband. Both Mery and Aviva were really concentrated and determined to understand the pattern. And the third lady, you might ask? The third lady was Mary's mom. Glued to the cel phone she took part of the meeting on speaker phone. Silvia Abadi is now part of our knitting club and our official representative in Mexico City, welcome to the club girl!

Increases and decreases in the pattern were a bit of a challenge tough, thus we came up with our own visual chart. Although it might look odd for those experienced knitters, it really worked for us!

By the way, The Flower Headband posting has been updated with a little information on the knitted flower pattern. I have added a link to a tutorial video as well. The flower on this new headband I made is done in crochet and it is slightly bigger than Andreas grey one, it is about 11.5 x 11.5 cm.

If you like them oversized, check this one out- from Urban Outfitters. The crochet flower I made is very similar to this one. The actual headband is really fast and easy to make on circular needles... use it as a neck warmer if you wish.

Flower Headband

By request from some ladies from the knitting club I managed to find the pattern for this knitted headband. I could not wait to make it... so I did.

I was in front of my computer trying to follow the pattern, counting stitches and trying really hard to concentrate, but my mac's mail application kept jumping up and down(announcing that I had a new email e-v-e-r-y 2 minutes).

Meanwhile in NYC fireworks were seen near La Guardia airport! apparently the knitting girls were throwing a party for Ilana. And I? well, I was busting my butt trying to finish the headband to make sure it came out like the one Mery wanted (I think she needed a fancy accessory to dress up for the cousin).

I used less than one skein of Patons Classic Wool in Dark Grey for both the headband and the flower, and a pair of size 6 us (4 mm) needles. The pattern can be found at T. Mattews Fine Art blog.

For those of you that need help understanding the abbreviations and want to learn how to increase and decrease stitches, I strongly recommend you to visit Knitting Help. This is a wonderful site where you can find many tips, easy to understand instructional videos, a glossary of common knitting abreviations, patterns and tips on knitting. If you like learning things on your own, this is a site you must bookmark on your computer.

The flower on the headband is from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B Anderson. The flower is made with 4 layers. Each layer is made separately, then stacked from largest to smallest and sewn together.

She has a video on youtube where she demonstrates how to make one of the layers. For the first layer (10 petals) cast on 112 stitches, for the second (8 petals): 90 stitches, for the third(6 petals): 68 stitches and for the fourth(4 petals): 46 stitches.

For my friends from the knitting club I must tell you, when you visit the site you will find, that the instructional videos are shown in two styles of knitting: Continental (pink button) and English (blue button). Pick the continental one. I also recommend you watch the video on Combined Knitting, which is the way I was taught to knit and I think many of you as well. It explains why we end up with twisted stitches on the hat project while using circular needles and also how to adjust our stitches when following western patterns.

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves last night, and I ask you nicely...next time, throw a party for me!!!

Rose Hip

I often visit Etsy in search of new ideas and inspiration. This is a place were hundreds of talented artist sell their handmade creations. I can spend hours browsing through the beautiful stuff and often buy knitting and crochet patterns. It is here I found Rose Hip; she lives in Vancouver and offers a collection of pillowcases made out of new and vintage fabrics. What is so special about these is that she tastefully finishes the pillowcases with a lovely scallop crocheted motif using a soft cotton yarn in stunning contrasting colours.

I noticed the link to her blog and was happily surprised when I realized she has 2 great crochet tutorials absolutely free.

Her Crochet Flower Square Pattern and Crochet Flower Pattern were a fabulous addition to my "things I want to make" list. These two patterns are perfect for making throws and pillow covers. The colour combination she uses reminds me of the stuff at pottery barn kids with a bit of a vintage twist.

Check out her Flickr photostream where I find inspiration on all the fabric she uses. I like to open my Color Munki palette creation software, where I throw in photos that inspire me and pull out unique color palette combinations I can later use on my own projects.

A FAMILY OF PUFFS

If you were inspired by my last post where I showed Christien Menderstma's Urchin Puff (which btw retails for $800 at Design Within Reach ...Ouch!) , you will be happy to know that Anna & Heidi Pickles offer a whole family of Puff patterns for FREE. These Puffs (Norweigan word for stool) are meant to be knitted in a much thinner yarn, Acrylic is recommended and you need to get yourself a pair of size #19 US circular needles.

PUFF DADDY:

Materials:

Eskimo, 18 balls (Or yarn suitable for US #13 needles)

Acrylic yarn would probably be a really good alternative, as it´s a piece of furniture

US #19 circular needles 2 cheap duves (feather and down)

Instructions:

Cast on 35 stitches using three threads.

Knit the garter stitch until you´ve knitted all the balls, and there is just enough yarn left to asseble the stool.

You now have ONE rectangular piece.

Cast off loosely.

Assemble the short sides (35 stitch side) as neatly as you can.

Assemble the first long side. This is supposed to be the top or the bottom of the stool. Put the needle through the end stitch of every second row and tighten, tighten, tighten! Repeat on the rows in between and tighten until there is no whole in the middle.

Stuff the duves into the stool. We tried to make a ball of the duves before we stuffed it.

Assemble the other end in the same manner as the first.

And there you go! Your first knitted furniture perhaps?

YOU CAN FIND THEIR OTHER TUTORIALS HERE

PUFF MAMA:

PUFF DADDY'S BABY:

PUFF MAMA'S BABY:

PUFF GRANNY'S BABY

911- Twisted Stitch When Knitting on the Round

Some of the ladies had to restart their projects a few times when knitting on circular needles. The reason for this is that when knitting on the round you are knitting on the right side of the fabric all the time. If you are a Combined Knitter (like most of us at the knitting club) you have to make sure not to twist the stitches when knitting. Depending on your particular method of knitting, the stitches will be presented on the needle differently. The idea is to concentrate on the actual stitch "loop" being careful that the "legs" of the stitch are opened up and not crossed. If you twist the stitch, you will see that the "legs" create an X at the bottom of the stitch.

UNTWISTED STITCH:

TWISTED STITCH:

Although there are times when crossing or twisting stitches are done intentionally, in the case of the israeli hats, it created an undesirable result. Twisted stitches are tighter than standard stitches and they create a fabric that is stiffer than plain knitting. This can ruin the drape of a sweater and it can also prevent a piece of knitting from felting because felting requires loose stitches that move around during the felting process.

This is how a basic stockinette stitch looks when knitted normally:

This is what basic stockinette stitch will look if you twist the stitches:

For instructional videos further explaining this, go to: Knitting Help.com. Watch the video on Combined Knitting.

Another way to avoid having the twisted stitches is to change your method of knitting to the Continental Knitting method. This method is very similar to Combined Knitting only the purling is done a little differently. An easy instructional video is also shown at Knitting Help.com . I personally like the Combined method because I find the purling much faster and easier to execute. So what I do when knitting with circular needles is I untwist the stitches as I shown above rather than changing the way a I grab the yarn when knitting.

Better late than never... happy knitting