Queued: Rag Bathmat

From Julie Weisenberger

Rag Bathmat was designed by Julie Weisenberger. She has a lot of great patterns.  There is so much to like about this one.

First of all it looks great.  I cannot think of a better way to mark your home as a knitter's domain than with a chunky cabled bath mat. (Ok maybe a beautiful display for your stash would work too.)

Another thing that I love is that it is made out of scrap fabrics. The one in the picture is made of a couple cut up sheets.  Julie even includes a great tutorial on rag knitting. It is up-cycling and eco-friendly at their best.  I had a pile of old white t-shirts that I was going to cut up to make this, but they were accidentally swept up and taken away in a donation trip. Now I'm waiting to collect a few more to rip up and knit together.

The final part of this that I love is the texture.  Just the thought of these bumps and cables made out of soft cotton under my feet, makes my toes happy.

I *heart* my City

Creative Time presented an art project by Paul Ramírez Jonas called Key to the City. On my birthday, hubby took me to Times Square, and bestowed me with a key that opened locks all over the city. As we researched the project more, we learned that people were leaving notes, cards, and other markers in the places where they unlocked keys. I wanted to interact with this project in a way that showed how much I love the idea and my complete infatuation with NYC. So, (as I'm sure you've guessed by now) I knit up a bunch of little hearts to leave as my calling card. Several of the places ask that you not leave anything behind, so I respected that. The whole project for us was much more about the city then the locks. It was nice to hold a key to some of her secrets, but really we used it as an excuse to explore place we wouldn't think of on our own. The project is over, but I still keep my key on my key chain. I'm really possessive of this city, and I'm not ready to part with a memento that represents that so well.

These are the photos we took around the city as we hunted down and opened up locks. Some of them even show the hearts in places they were left.

Knitting in Envy

The whole time I was working on Dean and Katy's wedding gift, a little green monster was growing inside of me. I only have one hand knit dishcloth, and I wanted more. I decided to keep up the momentum I had created with their kitchen set and stock my own kitchen.

Patterns: Ballband Dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting, Lizard Ridge Dishcloth (Rav Link), and Circle Cloth

Yarn: Lion Cotton Yarn in Sunflower and Navy

Needles:US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 9 (5.5 mm)

Notes: Hubby picked out these colors. He swears that he didn't choose them because they were his high school colors. Generally I liked them because they match the beautiful vase we picked up on our honeymoon in Spain, but there were times when I would look down at the knitting in my lap and felt like I was cheering for Michigan.

I made two of every pattern and alternated the color set up. One of the circle dishcloths did not make it into the photos, because I have been loving these so much they haven't all been clean at once. I had bought 4 balls of yarn from the Lion Brand Studio, but all 6 of these cloths came from just one ball of each color.

I didn't make any adjustments or changes to any of the patterns, the only note I have is that, the circle cloths are a bit smaller than the others. They could use an extra column and an extra row, but I would have needed my other two balls of yarn to make that happen.

I would go on choosing you...

Last year for spring break we had the opportunity to run around NYC like tourists because our friends Dean and Katy came to visit.
They are such a wonderful couple that we knew they would be getting married well over two years ago, but it was on this trip that we started to get real details about when the big day would finally come. Just because the event was inevitable, doesn't mean it would be any less perfect, so Hubby and I started the talking and planning to had back to Arkansas as soon as they left.

Two days after we bought our plane tickets, I got a message from Katy asking me if I would read I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg during the ceremony. I was honored and wildly excited. Prior to her request, I had never heard of I Like You. It is such a sweet and funny book that I am a little sad knowing that I've gone this long without reading it. The back cover claims, "Here is the book that Romeo would have given Juliet, Charlie Brown would have given Snoopy," and I agree completely. Please go read this book if you haven't already. It will make you smile despite yourself, and it will remind you how great it is to like all those people that you love. Clearly, I am enamored with this book, but I can't help it. It was a perfect tribute to the marriage of such a fun and loving couple.

I really wanted to make something special for Dean and Katy. I had the ambition to make them a blanket, but since this was the year of babies, that plan became more than impractical.

Maybe for their 5th anniversary... or their 10th. Since they are joining together and setting up a new home, I thought it would be appropriate to make them some dishtowels and wash cloths. The girlfriend who came with me to pick out yarn, started talking about why she could never use hand knit dishcloths. She gave me this whole argument about how they are too fancy so she would prefer to just treat them like art. With that in mind, I decided to shoot for simple and durable looking rather than artful and fancy. For simple and usable, I went right to Mason Dixon Knitting.

Pattern: Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason Dixon Knitting

Yarn: Lion Brand Collection Cotton Bamboo in Magnolia and Hyacinth

Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)

Notes: I took one pattern repeat out and it was almost perfect for one cloth per ball.

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting

Yarn: Lion Cotton Yarn in Natural and Periwinkle

Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 9 (5.5 mm)

Notes: No pattern changes, but one of these is not like the other. Can you tell which one's special? I'll give you a hint it has blue bricks with a white background. Still don't know? That's ok I don't know which one it is either, but one of them was knit by Hubby. The fact that I can't tell which one it is, just tells you how mad his knittin' skillz are.

Congratulations! We like you because we like you!

For My Home

I have no idea when I started this little bag minder, but it is now finished. This has been the mindless little project that sits on my desk waiting to be mindlessly worked on while I play video games or my computer loads YouTube videos. I know it has been there for at least a few weeks, but if I had actually worked on it with any concentration at all it probably should have only taken a couple hours. This bag is much smaller than the pattern calls for, but I wanted a small one. I used some left over DK yarn instead of worsted and the mesh section is only about six inches instead of twelve.

At our old apartment we kept our plastic bags in a spare garbage can. (It was suppose to be the recycling can, but we never kept the recycling in the apt long enough to worry about collecting it in the can. Over time it became the plastic bag can.) We had so many plastic bags when we moved out that they were a primary packing material. I never want to deal with that many plastic bags again, and now that I bring bags to the store, we don't have many extras to worry about.

This is my second bag minder. I made the first one just like the pattern is written. I had some Red Heart for it and everything, but it was just too big. The cabinet doors under my sink don't hang straight so I knew that I wanted my bag minder off that little knob, and a foot and a half long bag minder just doesn't fit there. Instead that one is hanging from the wire rack above my dryer. I keep all of my cleaning rags in it. It was a great way to clear up some shelf space. Since space is such a hard thing to come by in my area of the country, I'd be surprised if this is my last bag minder.