A Glimpse Into My Life ...

I am having so much fun with this knitting machine and I love the speed in which I can get some of my knitting done up with.

On Saturday, while I was at work, I was asked to make a felted purse.  The requirements:  it needed to be small (she wants it to hold her wallet, cell phone and keys) and it needed to have a flap.  So, on Sunday I sat down and knit one up - I'll be taking it to her on Friday when I go into town, but here is a sneak peek of how it turned out:

Here it is, on the machine - by the time I was done knitting it, it reached almost to the floor.

This is showing the label of the yarn that I used, it's Sean Sheep armytage (I love using this yarn for felting because it felts up really, really nice).

Here I have finished knitting the purse, folded it into thirds and clamped it (I got those little clamps from Princess Auto - who knew they sold knitting supplies there, right, lol) so that it is ready to be sewn together.

I took it over to Lori's house so that I could get it felted and here is how it looks when the flap is down.

And with the flap up.

I took this picture today, my beautiful assistant insisted that it be modeled, lol.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

The other day, after getting home with the knitting machines, Don set one of the up and I have been playing on it in my spare time, mostly just to figure out how to cast on and how the thing works.

Last night I found a pattern for a dishcloth on Ravelry and decided to give it a try, here is how it turned out:

The blue cotton yarn came in the stash of yarn that I inherited along with the knitting machines, the white cotton yarn that I crocheted around the edge came from my stash.  I think it turned out really well, the next one I make is going to be white with the blue crocheted around the edge to make them kind of a matched pair.

I'm thinking that this would make a wonderful Christmas present paired up with a fancy little bar of soap - hmmmmmmm, may have to get some more cotton yarn, lol.

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I was asked a while ago to do up a tutorial on how I make the reusable, washable, swiffer type dusters - I apologize for taking so long in getting this done and hopefully some of you find this useful.

The first thing that I do is find myself some fleece - thin fleece works really well for this, mainly because it is easier to sew through than thicker fleece is.  I use fleece because it does not fray, I only cut and sew, which is why I would not use flannel for this project.  When I need to wash mine, I throw them in with the towels and then into the dryer to dry.  A friend of mine gave me the tip of dusting the TV screen first (with it off, of course) and then this give the fleece a bit of 'static' to pick up the dust better - I haven't tried that tip because I find that these do a great job of dusting just as they are.

Here is the fleece that I have chosen - it's a little thicker than what I normally use, but it's what I had on hand.

I like that it is light on one side but dark on the other.

Are you ready to see my super-duper-fancy pattern that I made up for this?
Pretty spectacular isn't it, lol.  The measurements that are done in black is for the bottom layers.  The measurement in red is the part that the duster will slide under.  You can just faintly see some dotted lines in the middle, running from end to end - these are your stitching lines, basically you just divide the pattern into thirds and those are your stitching lines.

Here I have traced around the pattern piece onto the fleece to make the cutting go faster - the fleece is doubled.

Here is the order in how I have them - the larger rectangles are not all exactly the same size, but it doesn't really matter for this pattern ... the dusting job will still get done, lol.

You aren't going to be sewing through all 5 layers just yet, that's why 2 layers are on the right hand side of the picture - don't worry about them just yet.  Stack 2 large rectangles one on top of the other and then put the small rectangle on top of them and have it kind of centered.

Here I am pointing at one of the stitching lines (the dotted ones on the pattern that divide it into thirds), I lay the piece of cardboard on top of the fleece so that I can see where to make the tick marks.  I only do a little tick at the beginning of where I am going to be sewing.  The three layers are pinned together in the middle by one pin, just to make sure that the layers don't shift around on me while I'm sewing.

Okay, the top piece of the duster is now sewn together, you are now going to lay this on top of the other two large pieces of flannel (which have been stacked).

Here, I am sewing all 5 layers together.  Directly above where my fingers are, you can see the first two stitching lines that I did.  Now I am doing one single stitch line down the middle of the other two - I don't use a tick mark or anything for this, just basically eyeball it to make sure that I am going down the center.  If your fleece is fairly thick, you may have to get your kids to run the reverse button at the beginning and end of the stitching line as you guide the material during the stitching.

Here is what the top looks like after it has been sewn.

And here is what the bottom should look like.

Now comes the fun part, lol.  I use pinking shears to make the cuts in the material, not because I am worried about fraying but because I think it gives a little bit of a decorative look.  If you don't have pinking shears, use regular fabric scissors to make the cuts.  I always make sure that I do all of the cuts on the bottom side first (it has just two layers of fleece to cut through), but you can do this part however you feel most comfortable.

The bottom is all done and I am just finishing making the cuts on the top.

Here is how it looks with the handle in place.

A side view of the finished duster.

And the bottom.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful - if you have any questions, just give a holler and I will try and help you out as best as I can. 

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link