Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair

After years of admiring the incredible talent of alternative crafters at Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair in Washington, DC, I am now part of it!

This year, for the first time, the fair will span two days. I will be there on Sunday, September 29, 2013, from 10 am to 5 pm.

Washi tape knitting needle divider

I admire people who keep their knitting needles in a neat fabric case, but I know I just don't do it. I want to grab my needles when I need them, and stash them away when I'm finishes, all in one quick motion.

So I keep them in cute jam jars. Nice, if it weren't for the fact that I have a lot of different sizes - while I can stash them away quickly, it takes some rummaging to find one complete set.

So I came up with these washi tape dividers - two strips of tape cross wise to create four compartments in the jar. Just the right amount of space to hold the needles upright without any cramming.

Happy knitting!

Crown Giveaway!

Head over to etdieucrea and look for 'concours' for a chance to win a free crown by Lace and Cable.

Thank you Elisa for hosting this giveaway.

Happy New Year (Persian New Year, that is)

With the spring equinox, the new year (Norooz) starts in the Persian calendar. And it is celebrated big.

The Tuesday night (Chaharshanbe Suri, 'Wednesday (eve) feast') before the spring equinox, you light bonfires, often as many as nine on a row, and purge yourself by jumping over them while asking the fire to draw your 'yellow', everything weak and sick, from you and give you its 'red', strength and health. 

Thus fortified, on the day of the spring equinox, you dress in all new clothes, or at least a token new pair of socks, and have a lovely dinner of fish, herb rice and herb omelets, and admire your haft seen ('seven s's), your table of symbolic items, most of which start with the Persian letter s (clockwise from front left): senjed (dried oleaster fruit, symbolizing love), sir (garlic, symbolizing medicine), samanu (wheat germ paste, symbolizing wealth), serkeh (vinegar, symbolizing old age), sib (apple, symbolizing beauty and health), sabzeh (wheat grass, symbolizing rebirth) and sonbol (hyacinth, symbolizing the arrival of spring, unfortunately too big for my small haft seen and represented here by a simple little flower my gracious girl picked for me we do have a large hyacinth and it fills the house with its heavenly scent), as well as eggs and coins for life and wealth, and a mirror to reflect it all.

Eide shoma mobarak!

For the birds

Inspired by Juniper Moon Farm's lovely post, on providing birds with nesting material in the spring, I have been collecting all these bits and pieces of leftover wool yarn for a while (be sure to cut the yarn in lengths of 4 to 8 inches and use a suet cage).

We have a beautiful, old established bird house up on a long pole in the back yard, but I must confess, I really want to lure a new family of birds to the side yard -

- because this bird house is attached to the window and open on the back:

It comes with a black square on a suction cup to give the young family their privacy. 

Can't wait to peek if someone moves in.

Knitted Short-row Hearts

Here is a knitted heart with smooth edges all around - thanks to short rows that allow you to shape the heart between cast-on and bound-off edges.

Happy Getting-ready-for-Valentine's-Day.

Knitted Short-row Hearts

Material:

Use a small amount of leftover yarn, whatever weight you have on hand. 

Dimensions: 
Worsted weight yarn on size US 6 needles: about 2 1/2 inches square.
Bulky yarn on size US 9 needles: about 3 inches square.
Bulky yarn held double on US size 15 needles: about 4 3/4 inches square.

All stitches are slipped purl wise.

wrap and turn: Slip next stitch with yarn in back, bring yarn in front and slip stitch back.

k 1 front left: Knit stitch through its front leg coming from the left side, thus twisting it.

kfb: Knit into front and back of stitch.

slip-bind off 2: Insert left-hand needle into second stitch on right-hand needle and pass stitch over first stitch on right-hand needle, slip next stitch on left-hand needle to right-hand needle and pass second stitch over.

cable-cast on 2: Slip stitch from right-hand needle to left-hand needle. Insert right-hand needle into stitch on left-hand needle as if to knit, pull loop through and place on left-hand needle next to original stitch. Insert left-hand needle between these two stitches, pull yarn through and place on left-hand needle.

Updated Solid Heart

Using long-tail cast on, cast on 16 stitches.

Row 1 k 14, wrap and turn

Row 2 k 12, wrap and turn

Row 3 k 7, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, wrap and turn

Row 4 k 8, wrap and turn 

Row 5 k 3, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, wrap and turn

Row 6 k 4, wrap and turn

Row 7 (k2tog) twice, wrap and turn

Row 8 k 1, wrap and turn

Row 9 k 1, wrap and turn

Row 10 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 11 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 12 slip-bind off 2, cable-cast on 2, k 2, k 1 front left, k 1, wrap and turn

Row 13 k 2, wrap and turn

Row 14 (kfb) twice, k 4, wrap and turn

Row 15 k 8, wrap and turn

Row 16 kfb, k 1, kfb, k 3, wrap and turn

Row 17 k 8, wrap and turn

Row 18 kfb, k 1, kfb, k 3, wrap and turn

Row 19 k 8, wrap and turn

Row 20 slip-bind off 2, bind off to end

Weave in ends. Block into shape.

Broken Heart

Rows 1-11 work as Updated Solid Heart

Row 12 slip-bind off 2, bind off to end.

Weave in ends. Block into shape.

Note on the update:

Depending on your personal tension and gauge, the heart can come out somewhat lopsided in the first version of the pattern (below). I have not seen that in my own knitting, but some of you have. This must be because in the first version the placement of the wrap-and-turns, and with them the alignment of the rows, is not symmetrical, but somewhat spiral - in the first half, the rows show diagonal, in the second, they show vertical. If your stitches' height is about the same as their width, it does not affect the shape; if, however, there is a difference, one side will pull in. I am sorry if that happened to you. I revised the pattern to be as symmetrical as I can get it. 


Solid Heart (first version)

Using long-tail cast on, cast on 16 stitches.

Row 1 k 14, wrap and turn

Row 2 k 12, wrap and turn

Row 3 k 7, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, wrap and turn

Row 4 k 8, wrap and turn 

Row 5 k 3, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, wrap and turn

Row 6 k 4, wrap and turn

Row 7 (k2tog) twice, wrap and turn

Row 8 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 9 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 10 slip-bind off 2, cable-cast on 2, k 2, k 1 front left, k 1, wrap and turn

Row 11 k 4, (kfb) twice, wrap and turn

Row 12 k 6 , wrap and turn

Row 13 k 3, kfb, k 1, kfb, wrap and turn

Row 14 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 15 k 3, kfb, k 1, kfb, wrap and turn

Row 16 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 17 k 6, wrap and turn

Row 18 slip-bind off 2, bind off to end

Tie ends in a knot and weave in. Block into shape.

Two Color Heart

Rows 1-9 work as Solid Heart

Row 10 slip-bind off 2, change color, cable-cast on 2, k 9, wrap and turn

Row 11 k 5, (kfb) twice, wrap and turn

Rows 12-18 work as Solid Heart

Weave in ends. Block into shape.

Broken Heart

Rows 1-9 work as Solid Heart

Row 10 slip-bind off 2, bind off to end.

Tie ends in a knot and weave in. Block into shape.

For personal use only. Copyright 2013 by laceandable.

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