January Solo Sock Club

I'm still enjoying the self-curated Solo Sock Club, inspired by the Yarn Harlot. I made good progress. Here are my finished January socks:

The yarn is one I dyed myself, I called the colorway Caramel Apple from World on a String Designs. The base is 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon. I dyed it in a way that would prevent color pooling around the heel area. This used a vanilla sock pattern. January is in the books; I'll post about February soon.

Wee Wildflower Gifts and Easing in Sleeves in Seamed Knitting

I have a new project (technically two) hot off the needles. Anytime someone I know has a new bundle of joy, I feel an ovewhelming urge to knit something tiny to welcome the little one to the big world. In this particular case, the arrival of said baby also meant a promotion to Big Sister for an older sibling. As a huge fan of the Coastal Knits book and also the miniature versions in Coastal Kids, the Wee Wildflower pattern has been in my queue for quite some time. It's such an adorable piece, and it has POCKETS.

This seemed like the perfect time to whip one of these up. In the case of the big sister....well, that's a big deal. Clearly, only two sweaters would do (matching, of course). I was thrilled to find a suitable yarn in my stash that had enough yardage to complete both sweaters, an indie-dyed polwarth and silk blend. Now, you may have heard of Second Sock Syndrome. This is where you finish one sock, and the other feels like an absolute slog, and it takes you forever to complete it. I feel as though this affliction is even more serious when it manifests as Second Sweater Syndrome. Therefore, I always reccomend that if you are knitting two of anything and those things are not the same size, ALWAYS DO THE LARGER ITEM FIRST. This makes the progession of the smaller item feel as though it is going faster than the first (as it should), and if you struggle to maintain project focus, the additional motivation in this approach is critical. One of the features of the Wee Wildflower patern is that it is knit flat and seamed. I expect this may scare off a few knitters, but I promise it's not as hard as it seems (see what i did there?). There are some advantages to seamed knitting, one of which is that seams in knitted garment add structure and support the stitching. Where it *can* get a little tricky is sewing sleeves into sleeve holes, especially when the 2 circumferences do not match up perfectly. The first time I did this, I had not distributed the stitches very well. It was a disaster, and I ended up taking it apart. There is a much better way, and I would like to share my preferred method.

I start by marking the midpoint on the sleeve, and identifying the top and bottom points in the armhole. Then I loosely put the sleeve in the armhole.

Next, I line up the midpoint of the sleeve with the top of the armhole, and the ends with the bottom of the armhole, and then I secure these points with sewing clips.

Next, I work my way around the armhole, stretching and securing the sleeve so that it is eased in to the full space of the armhole and is also evenly distriubted throughout. During this process, I will stretch, inspect, shift and secure until I am satisfied that the sleeve is properly positioned and stretched evenly all the way around.

At this point, I secure a piece of yarn and sew the sleeve in place using the mattress stitch and removing clips as I go around. I have always been pleased with the results when doing it this way, and I haven't had to pull it out and start over, like I did before I started using this technique. The sweaters are complete now and have been gifted. I hope the recipients enjoy the sweaters as much as I enjoyed crafting them. Next up on the needles are a few Christmas presents...stay tuned!

Catching Up...

Well HEY THERE. It has been quite some time since my last post. There have been so many changes here. We moved an hour north; I took a new job; and I have REALLY expanded my hobbies. I still knit often - my go-tos are socks and tiny baby knits, which are mostly for gifts.

But it's not all tiny knitting...

The new place has a lot more land, so I've also been into gardening quite a bit....

Which led me to figure out how to preserve my harvest, so I took up canning....

The new property also meant that I could finally get all the chickens I have always wanted. We couldn't have them before due to a town ordinance. Now we have plenty, and we can have roosters. We also starting raising our own meat birds. As much as I hate processing day, I have to say that it very satisfying to know exactly the type of life my birds led before ending up on our plates...one with sunshine, grass, bugs to forage, and in general, birds get to live their best chicken lives here. That goes for the layers as well. We enjoy fresh eggs from spoiled hens. All laying hens get a full retirement plan here; once they are done laying, their jobs shift to bug management and flock leaders.

Of course, having an excess of laying birds has encouraged us to open an egg stand...which doesn't sell very many eggs since we live on such a quiet street in a remote area. This means I give away an insane amount of eggs between about February through September. Given all the gardening and eggs, I have been saving up my money, and I recently ordered a Harvest Right freeze dryer. As of now, I am anxiously awaiting for the shipping date. I hope it will arrive before Christmas, so I can whip up some treats for our holiday celebration.

Covid happened, of course, which caused me to dust off the old sewing machine to mass produce face masks back when you couldn't buy them. This led to me trying other projects, like knitting project bags and eventually, totes, backpacks, leather wallets, etc.

As busy as I have been with all this, my job(s) for the last few years have been - as jobs often are - sometimes overly consuming of both time and mental bandwidth. Over the last several months, things have become much more manageable, which makes me believe that I can pick up this little project again. Oh...I also started a YouTube channel. I talk about chickens a lot, and sewing and knitting as well. You can check it out here: www.youtube.com/@WorldOnAString

A Little Spring, Despite the Weather

Technically speaking, it is spring here in Maine. For the most part, though, you would never have guessed. It's been bitterly cold, and we've been ruthlessly pounded with snowstorm after snowstorm. Everyone here is....well, READY for spring to actually arrive (in the form of milder weather).

While I have continued working on my two new designs that I can't show here yet, I have also managed to squeeze in some other spinning and knitting as well.

I made some rainbow socks for my daughter, using basic sock math. No pattern to link. She loves them, and plus they are bright and cheery during this 2nd winter we are having. There is enough yarn leftover that I will try to make another pair for myself, perhaps a toe-up version so that I don't run out of yarn before I get to the toe. This way, as long as I get past the heel, I can just stop when I run out of yarn.

Around December, right before my surgery, I realized that I had lost one of the convertible mitts I made last year.

The convertible mitts are great for feeding the rabbits in the winter. I then had my surgery right before Christmas and inexplicably with all that knitting time on my hands did not give a thought to my missing mitten or perhaps replacing it. By mid to late January, I was reasonably healed and found myself having to venture out into the frozen tundra with no mittens...or at least, no mittens that matched. It was about this time that I was feverishly trying to finish my husband's Captain America sweater for his birthday, which was clearly no time to be selfish and knit something for myself to keep my hands warm (despite hubby telling me there really was no rush).

I finished his sweater on February 21st, and honestly I was concerned that it was going to get warm before I could get a replacement mitt. My options were:
1) Pay $27 for yarn and shipping to get the same yarn and knit one mitt to replace the one I had lost.
2) Knit a mitt out of a different yarn and live with mismatched mitts.
3) Knit a new set of mitts in a different color and have a new set.

I was convinced that all the cold weather would be gone by the time I could get the first mitt done, let alone a set. I did end up going with option 3, and I finished the set on March 10th. Let's just say that I have gotten PLENTY of use out of them so far.

I used a combination of the patterns for Broad Street Mittens and Podster Gloves. I really liked the pair I'd had before, but I decided I wanted the thumbs to flip open also. The yarn is Mountain Maple Sock, which is 100% superwash BFL from Highland Handmades. The colorway is called Immutable, and it was the January feature of the Snapshots of Maine yarn club. I've already received the February and March shipments as well, and I've been thrilled with each one. I would definitely recommend checking out the website. I've loved everything I've gotten from there.

As for spinning, I have finished my August 2013 Roving of the Month from Purple Fleece...4 oz  each of superwash BFL (what can I say, it's just been a SW BFL kinda month) in the colorways Mountain Laurel and The Grass is Always Greener.

I spun this up intending to knit socks with it, so it's got a generous amount of twist, and since I wanted to preserve the color changes in the Mountain Laurel fiber, they are chain plied. I am very pleased with how it came out...now to pick a pattern. Any suggestions?

In other (non-fiber) news, I have only 4 workouts left to become a Couch to 5K graduate. Hopefully I will be posting soon that I finally made it through the program...plus I am signed up for a 5K on April 13th.

A Severe Case of Startitis

I've been knitting a lot lately. Big shocker, I know. I had a hernia repair mid-December. In the weeks leading up to the procedure, I was quite concerned about whether or not I would feel okay enough to knit or not. I mean, this was quite a gamble...I would either lose out on precious Christmas knitting time, or I would have extra time (and perhaps even knit something for myself in December...gasp). It turns out that I was knitting within a day or two, and though Christmas was soon over, my recovery was not as swift as I had hoped, and let's just say I had lots of knitting time on my hands.

You might think with all my unanticipated knitting time, I would be blazing through projects and turning lots of works in progress into finished objects. Nope. For some inexplicable reason, I cast on for a bunch of new projects. New year startitis, I guess. So what am I working on currently? Well, my husband has asked me to knit him a Captain America Hoodie, I have a Celestarium on the needles that I am knitting with my own handspun (more on that later), and also a pair of socks using the Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes pattern. I also have some leftover sock yarn that I can't bear to go to waste, which has become my portable project - a pair of Textured Tootsies baby socks - a free pattern available on ravelry. Here is the first pair that I made:

 I also just finished some socks for a friend. It's a basic sock pattern, and I used some Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn in the Nora colorway. The leftover yarn from this project is what I am using to make the second pair of baby socks. I also recently finished a super-fun knit toy for the kids...more to come on that later.

I also recently finished a sweater for my son:



The pattern is the Abernathy Sweater by Terri Kruse. The pattern was very well written, and it was a great knit. The best part was my son's beaming face because mommy had knit a sweater just for him, and he happily exclaimed that he would wear it forever. Melted my heart.

Romney Ridge Cowl

I  am very excited to announce that the pattern for my Romney Ridge Cowl has now been published.

You can find the pattern for sale on ravelry and etsy. The design uses 2 colors of Romney Ridge Farm Blend, and it uses about 1/2 skein of each color - so this yarn will give you enough yardage to make 2 cowls.

This reversible cowl starts with a provisional cast on and is then knit in two sections of color. The wrong sides of the fabric are then folded together and the ends are grafted together. This results in a reversible cowl with a bit of contrast and the same pattern inside and out.

The provisional cast on and kitchener stitch make it an intermediate level knit, but there will soon be a one-sided version that is suitable for beginners. You can check out my video on how I make sense of the kitchener stitch on my YouTube channel in this video:

Welcome to my World on a String!

I have changed my business name from Elisha Cram Designs to World On A String Designs. It's just so cute and fun, inspired in part by the Frank Sinatra song.

Here is a sneak peek at my newest design, the Romney Ridge cowl...

It's a cowl pattern worked in 2 colors, and it's reversible. I love how the colors contrast, and it has the same pattern inside and out. Stay posted for updates. It should be released for sale in the next week, and I will update here when it's available!

Here it is! Romney Ridge Cowl

First on up the Christmas crafting list...

I have officially identified the first item on my Christmas crafting list. I want to make something for my niece, Madison, who is 3 years old. She's a cutie patootie, by the way. Her mom has recently started a cupcake business, so there's some serious baking to be had in that house. Now, what 3-year-old little girl doesn't want to be just like her mom? I think this little sugar pie NEEDS her very own girlie apron. I am thinking something like this: Tutorial by tidbits

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Maybe in a cutesy cupcake fabric.
But then, she needs her very own cupcakes, RIGHT? Check out these calorie-free indulgences...

Cherry on Top pattern designed by HappySeamstress and available for purchase at craftsy.com.

Yummy, right? Delectable knit and beaded cupcakes. Perfect for play and just downright scrumptious. You can purchase the pattern here if you just have to have some of your very own.

So, what's on YOUR holiday crafting list?