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!

The #1 Plant Every Apocalypse Garden Needs

A few years ago, my son had a school project involving cells, for which we acquired a bag of 15-Bean Soup that was then glued to a paper plate in a representation of mitochondria, ribosomes, golgi bodies and various other cell organelles. Well, this happened to be in the spring as the temperatures were warming up, and on a lark, I took about 5-6 of each variety of bean and planted them in my garden. Just 'cause I felt like it, really. It turns out, I am not the world's best gardener, and my little experiment went largely forgotten until it was time to harvest items from the garden. I will admit that there were many casualties of overgrown weeds that year. Many of the bean varieties were crowded out; I don't think any of them were watered aside from normal rainfall. Despite the flagrant neglect, imagine my surprise to find that there was a very healthy population of the black bean variety.

Having been impressed with the hardiness and yield of this handful of beans, I saved my small harvest and planted an enire row the next year. My goodness. Have I mentioned that while I enjoy gardening, I am overall rather new and not very good at it? My (very minimal) effort yielded 4 cups of dry beans. I never would have expected that black beans would be a good crop for Maine, but I was pleased! What I found most impressive was how I could completely ignore these plants and still have what I consider to be a successful harvest. This year, I planted 2 rows of the black beans. Here they are, living their best bean lives, suffering my neglect, yet still producing for me:

We did have an unusually soggy growing season this year in Maine. I tried to choose a day to harvest when they would be mostly dry. I ended up with a respectable amount in my Hannaford tote bag.

(Note that I invested in the weed barrier cloth this year)

Because the pods were still a bit damp when harvested, I did cycle them through my dehydrator to dry them out. Alternatively, you could pull the plants and hang upside down to dry out, but I am limited on space, so dehydrator it was for me. Then, I let them sit like the patient little harvest they are until I had time to deal with them. I shucked them a little at a time over several weeks. My 2 rows of black beans yielded 12 cups of dry beans, which is about the equivalent of 24 cans of black beans from the grocery store. I also planted one row of Flambo beans (from Johnny's Selected Seeds), and that resulted in a little more than 4 cups of dry beans. Right now, they are sitting in a jar, although at some point, when I am gosh darn good and ready, I will can them up. The beauty of dry beans, though, is that time can be whenever. Last year's bean harvest didn't get canned until about May, and they are just fine. I do like canning them up, as they at that point only need to be put into a recipe or reheated, without all the soaking and planning. However, whether to store dry or can the beans is really a personal preference.

So, why do I suggest that dry beans are a top crop for my apocalypse garden?

1) Easy to Grow. First of all, they are super hardy. You can be busy with obtaining clean water, fighting off zombies and tending and protecting animals (or working, for a non-apocalypse scenario) and not worry that your crop will not produce or will go by while you're off doing other things. Life happens. So should your garden.

2) Beans are a fabulous source of protein. While most of the plants in my garden are lacking in this area, beans really step up. If you couldn't count on the grocery store to provide your nutrition, obviously you'd have backyard chickens for eggs and maybe a few scrawny roosters for meat. But if you had raccoons, foxes or fishers feasting in your yard, the beans could help round out your protein content of your home-produced food while you waited to hatch and raise replacement chicks.

3) Cooking Versatility. From bean dip, to soups and stews, to salads, quesadillas and burritos...there are lots of ways to use beans.

4) Easy-to-Harvest Seeds. Once you buy your first beans (or save some from a bag before cooking dinner), you need only save out a handful of beans at the end of each season to be able to continue growing them indefinitely. No waiting on seed orders long after society and the Postal Service have collapsed.

5) Ease of Long-Term Storage. If you don't have time to preserve your harvest or if you don't know how or don't own a canner....you'll be just fine. Simply get the beans dry and collect them and store in a cool, dry location. They will last a long time with almost no effort, and they are very forgiving. If preservation is a skill you possess, you certainly may can them, but if you don't have experience with it, you'll get by just fine.

6) Improve Soil Quality. Beans are nitrogen fixers, so they help enrich your soil with nitrogen. This comes in super handy on next year's planting, if you plant your heavy nitrogen feeders, such as tomatoes, cukes, squash or cabbage, where your beans grew the previous year.

In all likelihood, we are not anywhere near one plant being the lynchpin of survival, but I do hope you'll give dry beans a try in your garden anyway. They are super easy, super delicious and pack a big nutritional punch as well.

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

Indie Gift-A-Long Blog Interview

As you may already know, I am a participating designer in the Indie Gift-A-Long on ravelry this year. It's been a ton of fun, and I'm so glad that I was able to take part this year. For those who aren't familiar, the GAL involved a period in November when designers offered patterns for 25% off, then knitters participate in knit-a-longs or crochet-a-longs, which involve lots of prizes. It also includes games on ravelry, which of course also included lots of prizes. It offers a great chance for knitters and crocheters to plan their holiday gifting (or their selfish knitting) and knit and crochet together for fun and prizes (or just pick up some great patterns at a discount and work on them later).

Today, you are in for a treat, because now that the bustle of the holidays has (mostly) passed, I have a blog interview of another designer to share with you. I was very excited to discover Lily Go's work, because it is amazing! I instantly fell in love with several of her shawl patterns. You can find Lily's blog here and her ravelry patterns here.

Here is what Lily had to say when I interviewed her:

How did you first learn to knit?

I was a crocheter first (learned to crochet when I was 5 years old). I only attempted to knit when I was a teenager but somehow I didn’t enjoy it as much as crochet (my tension was not consistent, and always dropped my stitch) so I stopped. Until one day about 8 years ago I learned about continental knitting. Never stopped knitting since.

What inspired you to start designing?

In 2006 stumbled upon a knitting blog where she offers her knitting patterns for sale. This idea fascinated me and motivated me to do the same. I managed to publish my first pattern, Sage Cardigan, in February 25, 2007.

What is your favorite yarn(s)?

I have no favorite brand, as long as it is natural fiber.

Which of your patterns make for really great gift knitting?

Most of my patterns are accessories, and I think accessories is perfect for gift because you don’t have to worry about the fit.

Do you tend to have several unfinished items on your needles, or do you prefer to have only one project in the works at a time (or something in between)?

I tend to work one project at a time.

Which one of your designs is your favorite?

For crochet, it is Gathering Leaves.

For knit, it is a tough choice between Dandelion on a Meadow,

Fox and The Grapes

and When The Flowers Bloom.

I would like to comment here with my favorite design of Lily's, which is the Heart on Fire shawl.

Do you get to do any “selfish knitting?”

Oh yes!! I am a very selfish knitter. Most of the time I knit for myself.

What gives you the feeling that you got your money’s worth out of a pattern?

I haven’t bought knit pattern before. However, for crochet pattern, I only bought fully charted pattern.

What do you most enjoy about knitting or crochet?

I love that I can multitasking while I am knitting or crocheting. I love the process of knitting/crocheting, and if I have a gorgeous FO, that is a bonus. I also like the idea that even you don’t like the result, I can always frog and redo.

Winners on the blog...

Thanks to everyone who entered to win a prize through the rafflecopter giveaway. The contest has closed, and winners have been selected and notified. In other exciting news, I do have a new pattern release coming out very soon, so please watch for that to be announced in the next week or so. Thanks for following World On A String Designs.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oh, that's right....I have a blog!

Well, here I am posting after quite an absence. I apologize, and I'll try to be better about that.

So, moving along. Back in May, I released a new design, the Masquerade Shawl.

The shawl was designed to show off variegated yarn by breaking up the pattern in different ways. However, when knit in a semisolid color, it makes the texture of the pattern pop instead of the color of the yarn,

As far as spinning projects go, I have been busy there also. I recently was lucky enough to have my friend Heather, also known as the fiberista from The Fiberista Files, and owner at Highland Handmades, invite me to spend the day with her at Highland Handmade Headquarters. She knew that I had some fiber I wanted to dye, so I brought it along, and MAN did we have a great time. Heather has also recently started offering puni-style rolags in her shop. She showed me around the blending board and how to use it. Then, she encouraged me to make some. This is what I came up with....

I'd never tried spinning rolags before, so once I got home, I couldn't wait to get started. Here's a pic of the singles.

I used merino wool on the blending board when I put these little lovelies together. This type of rolag is meant to be drafted out into a woolen-spun yarn, meaning that the fibers are not lined up side by side as in a worsted preparation. The woolen spun fibers result in a lighter, loftier yarn that contains more air and is a better insulator. 

The rolags made for delightful spinning. Here's my finished skein...

It is wonderfully squishy and smooshable. I definitely recommend trying some out. Now, keep in mind that this is one I prepared, and I have to admit that Heather has a much better eye than I do for color. Now, I know you all want to try rolags, too, and you're in luck, because Heather just so happens to have a bunch up in her shop right now.

One more cool thing I've worked on recently is the Wild Thing pattern by Susan Claudino.

The yarn I used is Highland Handmades Green Ash Worsted, which is what the pattern lists. The pattern was wonderfully written. This is the first pattern that I've knit from Susan Claudino, and I loved it. It was very clear, and I enjoyed the unique way the pattern calls for joining the parts and pieces. It's very easy, and no sewing required. I think the only drawback to knitting these adorable monsters was that my own little monsters got a little pushy about how much they thought I should be knitting. It's interesting how they rarely let me sit and knit....unless I am knitting toys for them.