Lydia's Star

Back in the spring, I stumbled across a pattern for a vintage circular shawl in a very old publication. No picture but the description of a star and leaf pattern intrigued me enough to find some yarn and cast on. The instructions were surprisingly easy to understand and update to modern knitting terminology. I finished the shawl after several weeks. It is gorgeous! I may well be the first person to knit this design in over 100 years! (That really appeals to the history major in me. LOL!) It would be a real shame to lose this piece of our knitting heritage. So I have taken the time to write and chart the shawl pattern for others to use.

First off, I've given the pattern a new name---Lydia's Star. I'm dedicating this pattern to my niece’s grandmother, Lydia, who passed away this summer after a long battle with cancer. A donation will be made in Lydia's name to the American Cancer Society for each pattern sold.

The original shawl pattern cryptically titled “A Handsome Round Shawl Knitted in Star Pattern and Leaves” is from Weldon’s Practical Knitter (1895) had no picture of the shawl. I've adapted and updated the vintage pattern for use by modern knitters. The 6 page pattern contains updated instructions, errors have been corrected, vague instructions clarified, missing instructions added, the pattern totally charted, and a lace edging added. The original shawl ended with a just few plain knit and purl rounds. I felt that such a beautiful shawl deserved something a little more special than that.

I used 1500 yards of fingering weight yarn (Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/8) on size 4 (3.5 mm) needles to knit this shawl. My finished shawl measured 52” across at the center but could have been blocked even larger. I didn't have a space large enough to block it as much as I would have liked.

I hope you enjoy knitting this shawl as much as I did.

The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

All money from pattern sales is donated to the Mercy Corp.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Soar - a shawl to crochet

I have another new shawl design for crocheters. This one I call Soar. It's an asymmetrical, wing shaped shawl that really showcases yarns with long color runs such as Zauberball and Noro. This started out as a more typically shaped shawl until I realized that it was growing wider way faster than it was getting longer. And I was running out of yarn. So I decided to make half a shawl and see what happened. I liked it! :)

I've been asked me how do you wear this shawl? Here are a few ways that I can suggest. My Ravelry testers came up with even more. A friend told me she would wear it as a hip wrap. The shape lends itself to being worn in lots of ways.
Crochet has a reputation for using lots more yarn for a project than knitting. This is one design that breaks that rule. I used a 459 yard/100 gram ball of Zauberball sock yarn in the Fuchenbeet colorway and a size H (5 mm) hook for this shawl. The shawl measures about 43" along the curved top edge, 66" along the bottom curved edge, and 35" deep along the side long edge.

The magic of this shawl is an easy two row stitch repeat containing nothing but dc, sc, and ch stitches. If your were to look at a close up of the lace, it looks like a flower or a cats paw lace pattern in knitting. (BTW, a friend challenged me to come up with a knitted version of this. I'm working on it. LOL!)

The three page Soar pattern includes full written instructions and a crochet chart. The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Wisconsin and stormy skies

Hubby and I took a weekend trip to Wisconsin recently to visit my cousin, Debra and her hubby Jeff. We've been wanting to do this for some time. The drive up was uneventful except for some unexpected traffic south of Madison, Wisconsin on the interstate. Black River Falls, where my cousin lives, was having a festival so we had to come in the back way. More scenic but showing signs of storms that had rolled through the area earlier in the week.

They live out in the country where they have several acres of land. To get to their road you have to drive down a gravel road that runs through a farm bearing an Organic Valley logo. There's an Amish farm across the road from their house.

Their house is more spacious than it looks from the outside. The first floor has a mudroom, 4 bedrooms, a large family room, dining room, and a big kitchen/dining area. The odd thing is there is only one bathroom in the house. The previous owners added on as they needed more space but neglected to add a second bath. The lower floor has a 2 car garage, plus 2 large and 2 smaller rooms. My house would fit easily inside of theirs.

Not long after we arrived, we got in the car again to visit the local brewery. Sand Creek Brewery was giving free tours during the festival. We got a behind the scenes tour and a history lesson on the family that owned the brewery and what other uses the building had been used for over it's life. (You can check out the link to the brewery to read about it's history. It was very interesting.) It was very hot the day we visited so a trip to the cooler in the basement was very refreshing. It was so cold down there that you could see your breath. :) Hubby sampled their Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and said it was very good. The brewery is hosting an Oktoberfest on October 2nd if you're in the area. We're told they have beer, food, music, and arts and crafts. Sounds like fun to me!

We had a good time while we were there but it seemed like we had just gotten there when it was time to head back home on Sunday afternoon. We had barely gotten onto the interstate when we began to run into heavy traffic. The closer we got to the Dells and Madison, the heavier the traffic became. It's weird to see big city/Chicago type of traffic in the middle of nowhere. Stop and go or creep and crawl is no fun driving. By the time we got to Madison, the 4 lane interstate looked more like a parking lot than a highway. I convinced hubby to get off the interstate and take another highway going south. I seemed to remember reading something on the web about Chicago people clogging the interstate from Madison to Chicago on Sunday afternoons. I must say that all the license plates we were seeing were Illinois plates and not Wisconsin. The locals must know to avoid the road on Sundays.

Knowing that there was Cubs game Sunday night in Chicago, hubby decided to go west and south of Chicago before we headed east. It was nice to get out all the traffic and see farms and open spaces again. I was surprised on I-88 when we started seeing these all over the place. Yes, hundreds of wind turbines turning in the breeze and generating electricity dotted the landscape for miles along the roadway.

I was glad when we finally pulled into our driveway. Nice trip but way too much time in the car for 2 days.

Our summer started out wet, then we went through a dry period. Lately, it's been very hot and stormy. When Chicago and Milwaukee got flooded with rain last weekend, we got a fair bit ourselves. So much so that there was some water in the basement again. Hubby and I woke up early on Saturday morning to our weather radio going off warning of another severe thunderstorm headed our way with 70 mph winds and heavy rain. Even though hubby had been home sick with some bug since Thursday, he was out in our front yard digging our drainage area deeper to keep the water draining down from the street from coming toward the house and going into the basement. We only need this extra drainage when we get dumped with large amounts of rain. The ground was already saturated from several days of rain. We really need to come up with a better drainage solution for heavy rains like this.

After all that effort, the storm broke up before it got to us. We did get more rain before the front moved through our area. In the evening, another line of storms moved south of us. Inside the house, I noticed the rosy colored light coming in through the windows. I grabbed my camera and went outside to see what was going on. Here's what the sky and clouds looked like. Very odd!

After all the rain, our zucchini and squash plants have been producing like crazy. The bad thing is the squash bugs are doing their thing so I doubt the plants will be around much longer. I detest squash bugs!

The first tiny tomatoes are turning red, peppers are setting, the corn is tasseling and beginning to set ears, and green beans are almost big enough to pick. Yum! I've cleaned out my freezer and am busy freezing produce for the winter. It's cheaper and better than store bought and I know exactly what's in it and what's not (no GMOs, no pesticides, no herbicides, no made made chemicals of any sort). You can't get better than fresh picked from the garden. Second best is visiting the local farmers market. I do that too for things that we don't grow.

Streak of Lighting Shawl - a crochet design

Introducing the shawl design I was working on that June night as the police searched my yard for fleeing suspects. I hope you like this crochet design. :)

Streak of Lightning is a top down triangle shawl to crochet. The simple two row body repeat is easy to remember and fast as lightning to crochet. I've added a beautiful border for a special touch of elegance. Here's a close up of the border.

You'll need 600-700 yards of a fingering/sock weight yarn and a size G (4 mm) crochet hook. I used less than 3 balls of Sensations Bamboo & Ewe for my red shawl. (Yarn available at Joann Fabrics & Crafts or joann.com.) The bamboo in this yarn gives my shawl a wonderful drape. My blocked shawl measures 73” x 35.”

This is a shawl pattern you can make again and again with any weight of yarn you desire. (Several of my testers made it with lace weight. Their shawls are gorgeous!) The design is also very easy to make smaller or larger.

The three page pattern includes full written instructions and a crochet chart.The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Dancing Stars Stole

Dancing Stars is a filet crochet stole. Playful stars dance across the surface of the stole that ends with a ribbon border. Worked only in simple double crochet and chain stitches, this 115 row stole works up quickly with about 900 yards of fingering/sock yarn and a size G (4 mm) hook. The pictured stole was made with less than 4 balls of Knit Picks Palette in Calypso Heather. Yarn cost for this project is under $9!

The blocked size of this stole is 25” x 63”. It's an intermediate pattern that requires a basic knowledge of filet crochet and filet charts. There are no row-by-row instructions with this pattern. Filet crochet is easily worked from charts.

This 4 page pattern includes basic written instructions and a filet crochet chart. Print the pattern out on the front and back of two letter sized sheets of paper and fold it in half to make a booklet that's easy to tuck into your project bag.

The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

This kind of excitement I don't need!

June has been a wild month so far. I can do without this kind of excitement.

The night of June 11th, I didn’t get much sleep. I was up late working on a new crocheted shawl. I had finally figured out what I wanted to do for the border and was looking forward to working on it without any distractions.

That's when I heard sirens coming from all directions and the number of police cars in the neighborhood. Two were parked at the intersection near my house. Another was parked with their lights shining across the yards several house south of mine. At this point, I'm wondering what the heck is going on?

I see lights everywhere, men on foot with flashlights and dogs walking around my house and my neighbors yards. It’s really weird to have cops crawling all over your backyard in the middle of the night. I cracked the window and softly asked the officers what was going on. They said they were searching for suspects who had bailed out of their vehicle. Yikes! Now I was totally freaked out! What kind of suspects were they dealing with? Did they have guns? Was I scared? Yes!

Unable to sit down, I peeked out of darkened windows to see what was going on. They searched my yard several times looking under, behind, and in every nook and cranny. Over an hour later, the searchers and dogs on foot left. The police car blocking the road at the corner remained and the one parked south of us still had it's headlights shining across the back of our neighbors yard to the south. The lights were to see if the suspects tried to flee the area. I sat down and tried to concentrate enough to work on the shawl border. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to sleep if I went to bed.

Sometime after 3 am, the last police car left with its lights flashing but no siren.

I finished the shawl before I crawled into bed about 4 am.

I checked the local news websites the next day for information about what happened. Two men driving a Cadillac were reported for breaking into cars parked at a local motels. These men fled in their car with the police in pursuit. They ditched their car a couple of houses away from mine and headed off on foot. The news story stated that they caught one of the suspects hiding behind a neighbor's house. Not mine but nearby. The other suspect was still at large.

Then this past Friday night, June 18, we had a very strong storm system move through. The forecast was for storms. Our temp hit about 90 degrees and thunderstorm watches were put out early in the afternoon. When I saw the big bow echo on the radar bearing down on Chicago and heading in our direction, I knew it was going to be a wild evening.

Hubby came home early because it was so hot. I’m glad he did. The local weather forecasters said we could get hammered with hurricane force winds as the storm front passed through our area. For once they were right. Wind gusts in the area were clocked at up to 90 mph.

The storm reached us at 6:45 pm EDT. As the skies darkened, the wind picked up, and the rain came down in sheets sideways. Trees twisted in the wind. We heard/felt a loud thud. What was that? I retreated to the basement.

Our electricity bounced on and off for about 5 minutes as the first blast of the storm rolled through. Not a good sign. I had my fingers crossed that it wouldn't stay off. Watching our thermometer, I saw the temperature drop from 85 degrees to 69 in 10 minutes. After the winds settled down, the thunder and lighting began and it continued to rain for another hour.

After the first wave went through, hubby and I went outside to check the damage. Lots of small branches down in our yard. The big tree behind our garden that was struck by lightning several years ago took a beating. About half the tree came down in the wind. We heard/felt the thud when it hit the ground. The branches shattered when they hit the ground. Here are some pictures I took right after the storm when it was getting dark.

Our garden took a beating. Plants and wire cages blown down. One hill of squash flattened. I walked through the garden setting things up. The ground squished under my feet. It was saturated with water. We could use a good week without any rain. They forecasting more on Monday. A second line of not-as-strong storms passed through about 11 pm dropping more rain on us.

Power was knocked out to about 80,000 in our area and is still out. In one small town nearby, the entire town lost their electricity. We consider ourselves lucky to still have power. About 300 repair crews have been called in to repair downed lines and poles.

On Saturday morning, we went to help a friend move. On the way to her house we saw several uprooted trees and lots of big branches and leaves down everywhere. We stopped at a filling station for gas. They only had no regular left, only premium. They were the only gas station in that area that had power. They were swamped with customers. As we came back through in the afternoon, they had were out of gas.

Several of our friends helping with the move were told they probably won’t get their power back on until Monday (or even late Tuesday night). Since we have an extra freezer in our basement, we offered freezer space to our friends whose power was out. Two took us up on the offer. I'm glad we could help. We've lost our electricity enough to know how difficult it is and worrying about the cost of losing a freezer full of food doesn't help.

My wish is for clear skies, no more rain for a week, and power being restored to everyone faster than the estimates. Oh, and a little boredom might be nice. :)

Bad blogger!

Sorry everyone, I know I've been MIA. I keep meaning to blog.

My mom is doing ok. She's going through physical therapy for her right arm and hand. Her PT session have already been extended twice, which tells you that it's not going as well as it could. Her hand is still swollen but looks much better than it did several weeks ago. I'm not having to go over to their house as often to help with things. That's good!

The fiber frolic at my house for my knitting group on May 1st was a lot of fun. I didn't get much time to sit down. Everyone wanted to see my design studio and drool over my wall of yarn. :) Next time I want more time to sit down to talk and play with everyone. Sorry there are no pictures. Everyone was having such a good time that nobody, including me, remembered to take any pictures. LOL!

In April, my niece had a birthday party to celebrate her son's first birthday. Her grandmother Lydia was there. She had been suffering from cancer for several years and had just gotten out of the hospital. Down to about 80 pounds, she was a shadow of her former self. She told me she was waiting for more biopsy results, admitted she was tired of fighting, and that it didn’t matter what the test results were. Sigh...I knew she wouldn’t be with us much longer. Even as bad as Lydia felt, she still asked about my mom. She knew about my mom’s fall and surgery. She told me that the cards my mom had sent her over the years had helped. "Your mom has a good heart." :) She asked when my mom's birthday was in May so that she could send her a birthday card. (She didn't live long enough to do this.) That day I was wearing my recently complted Painted Mountain shawl. Lydia admired it so I took it off, placed it around her shoulders, and told her it was hers. She smiled and said “Really?” I was happy that this small gift made her smile and feel better for a while. She was still thanking me as I left the party. Lydia died on May 6, 2010. Her funeral was a hard one to attend. Her daughter told me how touched she was that I had gifted the shawl to her mom and asked if I wanted it back. "No," I said, "keep it for the memories." She said she would send me a picture of her mom wearing the shawl. I hope she does.
Hubby was on vacation for two weeks. We got most of our vegetable garden planted. It's been a real struggle between hot temps and lots of rain. One day we had over 3.5" of rain! I've put some mulch down but the weeds are starting to come up big time. Need to get some cages and protection around somethings to keep the critters out. I've already seen deer tracks in the garden.

Here's a picture of a pair of Mallard ducks that have been visiting our yard. I cleaned out the small pond in our backyard and they've been swimming in it. Boo and Pookie keep watch when they're around and try to stalk them. Those geese are too smart to let a cat near them. I laugh when their prey flies off to safety. (Thanks Angie for letting me know these are ducks not geese. Hubby is always telling me they are geese. :) )

Lots of new projects in the works. Some knit and some crochet. A crocheted stole is out for testing. My testers should be done with it by June 19th. There are several more that need testing, others that need written up (including a round star and leaf shawl I translated from a pattern in Weldon's Practical Needlework from 1895). There never seems to be enough time in the day to do everything I have to do and things I want to do.

BTW, I'm moderating all comments for the moments. A spammer keeps trying to post unwanted stuff on my blog. You can still post comments though it may be awhile before I approve them and they show up.