I'm starting NaNoWriMo today. I just finished 1765 words. I am working on a 18K word manuscript that my second oldest brother had written. Sadly, he killed himself before he completed it and it is my labor of love to finish the novel.

I am hoping to rope baby brother into the effort as his writing skills are superior to mine. But, don't tell him that, he already has a giant ego!

I'm not the "real" writer in the family. DH Bob has written a 7 book 1 million+ series. If you want to read it, here is the first book. Remember to leave a review, please! Headgames I Fates and Fairies

The book I'm working on will have 3 sibling authors and many family stories woven into it. We have a great many "characters" in our lineage.



I'm knitting simple things for Christmas and exploring cable designs.Here are two versions of "Sweet Evil Alice" inspired by Alice from the UK TV show "Luther. All my patterns are buy one, get one free and priced at $1 each.
Sweet Evil Alice

Cat Head Bag

My youngest brother's wife and two daughters all have the initials C.A.T. Instead of a bunny rabbit themed basket for Easter, I created the Cat Head Bag to hold all the sugar filled goodies I gave them.

This is for the older of the two girls, in her favorite color. The younger likes orange best. I'm still working on that one.

This is a prototype for the pattern. I don't like how the ears came out on the right ear, I'll be working on making that one better.

I expect to have the second one finished this week and the pattern ready for sale by next week. In the meantime, I have a good number of free patterns and all of my designs are $1 and buy one, get one free Garilynn Designs

If you like fantasy (as in Fairies, not any sort of Shades of Gray), check out DH's blog. He is the model for many of my daft designs. He is a good sport and a great writer. Headgames Book Series

Thanks for stopping by!

A friend suggested that I make a cat hat for a cat.

This very mellow fellow is a quasi-feral, he purred the entire time he was wearing his new chapeau.

This design is available in my Ravelry shop Cat hat cat hat  All my designs are $1 and BOGO.

Thanks for taking a look.

Rubber Chicken knitted hat

In a previous post, I mentioned that I designed My Little Pony hoodies for two of my nieces. I studied various sources for inspiration and finally decided to watch the series. The series  is funny and intelligent, somewhat like the Bugs Bunny cartoons of my youth. Layers that the adults and the kids will laugh at, but for different reasons.

The Rubber Chicken hat came about because DH Bob joined an improv troupe. This affiliation required a novelty hat. I took inspiration from Cheese Sandwich's (voiced by "Weird Al" Yankovic ) sidekick, Boneless and translated that into a knitted version.

I have several chicken designs, being slightly chicken obsessed. We have a greatly reduced flock these days, just 2 Amerucanas left from a thundering mixed flock of 40. Our 5 acres are beautiful, but we have many, many critters who love to eat chickens. Here is a post from DH Bob's blog about our chickens:

Chicken post on toolmakingart.com

DH Bob is the patient model for many of my daft creations:

DH Bob, among his many talents such as modeling and blogging, has written a 14 book (so far, he is still writing) series of over 1,000,000 words.He also does his own cover art.   Bob the writer Check out the first book at https://www.amazon.com/Headgames-Fairies-Robert-David-Strawn-ebook/dp/B015II9KUY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489677705&sr=8-1&keywords=headgames+I+fates+and+fairies

The Rubber Chicken hat is $1 and BOGO, as are all my patterns in My Ravelry shop

Thanks for stopping by. 

Kitty ear hats, several versions

Pink Kitty ear hats have so much political baggage these days. I am designing and knitting lots of this style, trying to find one that satisfies my obsession with garments that stay put and don't require fiddling with.

Here is my in the round version:

Please excuse the blurriness of the photo, vivid colors cause my camera to lose focus and clarity.

The original  Pussy hat is a strip of knitted fabric beginning with ribbing, an expanse of stockinette stitch and ending with ribbing. I did not care for that for two reasons. First, two long side seams. Second, the cast on and bind off edges would not be the same.

I made a good number of my in the round version:

All of these were made from yarn I already had from "auditioning" pink yarns for a Pinky Pie hoodie for my youngest niece:

(Pictured above - Sleeve detail from Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle hoodies)

I was not happy with the ears of the squared top version and started experimenting.

DH Bob, my long suffering model, is wearing the first side to side version with cuff:

(DH Bob is not just a pretty face, he writes http://www.robertdavidstrawn.com/ and does woodworking http://toolmakingart.com/  If you like fantasy books with Fairies, Goblins, Elves, The Fates, lots of references to bluegrass music and a deep and abiding respect for double bass players, check out his series. )

This was still not exactly what I was looking for. The ears would still need some attention from time to time and the cuff would be too hot in the coming months.

I tried a version without a turn up cuff:

The above is a little better, but I wanted stick up and stay up ears. Here is the same design with a slip stitch crochet at the bottom of the ear section:

The latest uses the same basic design of 4 sections in points formed by increases and decreases. The midline section is joined with slip stitch crochet after seaming the back with a 3 needle bind off. Then, the ears are picked up, knit and then edged with I cord.

I'm getting closer, but I still have some issues with this version. I think that the ears may be too fox-like and the I cord edging is not perfect, so that bothers me.

I have almost used up all of the pink yarn I had with these experiments. They are going to good homes soon. I hope to have the pattern for all of the versions on Ravelry soon.

In the meantime, if you want to make the in the round version (free), here is it on Ravelry:

Kitty Ears Hat

All of my designs that I sell are $1 and BOGO.
 

It's difficult to make any reptile puppet  and not have it look like Kermit the frog.

These are based on a character from my husband's book series Headgames Book Series by Robert David Strawn,

I have made about one dozen versions of these. I would normally have ripped them out when I did not care for the results, by DH Bob wanted to keep them all. Lots and lots of yarns were killed during the evolution of this design.

 

I cord Cast On - My way

I have tried various I cord cast on methods and have not really liked how they turned out for me. I am very familiar with casting on from a crochet chain. I tried to apply that to an I cord and it worked very nicely.

First, make your 2 stitch I cord chain, the number of rounds of I cord equal to the number of stitches you want to cast on.

Leave the 2 I cord stitches on the needle. Insert a crochet hook in between the 2 stitches of the I cord.

Pull a loop through between the two I cord stitches and place on the needle.

Repeat until desired number of stitches is on needle.

In this case, I'm going to cast on 52 stitches since I'm making my Last minute no purl Hat http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/last-minute-no-purl-hat

I use this cast on method for my Another way to Zig Zag Afghan http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/another-way-to-zig-zag

All my patterns are on sale now for $1 and if you buy one, you get a second one free  http://www.ravelry.com/designers/gari-lynn

Hippity Hoppity - Giant Bunny Rabbits

Easter falls on April 20 this year, plenty of time to start a giant bunny for someone special.

My new design, Big Bunny Tutu, is named as an homage to my dearly departed younger sister. She was an enthusiastic Girl Scout and spent her summers at camp. She learned many funny songs, one of our favorites being "Little Bunny Fufu".

This bunny knits up to be 24" and is very huggable. Bernat's Baby Blanket  is a soft chenille yarn and makes for a tactile delight. Knits quickly, all in one piece with super bulky yarn on big needles and ends worked in and stuffed as you go, once you get to the second ear decreases you are done. The pattern also includes instructions for a tutu apron and vest.

If you can make a simple sock, you can make Big Bunny Tutu. 

The pattern is available in my Ravelry shop:

Big Bunny Tutu

We found the doll carriage at Circle P antiques in Navasota, TX. It's just down the road from my favorite local knitting shop, WC Mercantile. The doll carriage is a mid-century vintage doll carriage from Creative Playthings. The decals are not from Creative Playthings, I don't think, but I'm not an expert.

Blending hackle with dollar store combs and some help from DH

 I really liked the idea of a blending hackle made of combs. No offense to anyone who makes or uses the ones with nails, but I would be the one who makes the news because I fell on my hackle and had to go to the hospital to have it extracted.

The folks who inspired the plastic comb hackle Yarn Zombie, screwed the combs directly to a board. Also knowing my penchant for breaking things, I wanted something sturdier as I was worried I would pull the combs off if they were simply screwed to the boards.

So, poor DH was pressed into service, again. We procured some pine 2" by 4" and screws. After planing the surfaces smooth, he cut a groove for the combs. These particular combs had a handle, which he also cut off. The heat of cutting melted the plastic somewhat, but he sanded those smooth and that part is encased in the groove. The screw holes are recessed, again a nod to my klutziness. I wanted a blending hackle that fit my kitchen island exactly, so it's a really big hackle.

Using the blending hackles was a dream. These are not as high as the nail variety, but one can still do the continuous roving "reload" method that I learned from Blue Mountain.

The first use of the blending hackle was with some blended fiber that I made with odds and ends consisting of navy merino roving, ivory colored merino and seacell blend, odds and ends of bamboo, carbonized bamboo, milk fiber, some etsy white and black roving and some random bits of black or white fiber. I blended all of these with hand combs, weighing them to try to ensure a more or less equal distribution of fiber through the finished yarn. Once I had all of this blended with this method, I then used the blending hackle to make roving. All spun together, this is a nice heathered gray with a bit of a blue note.

I also created a curved version diz, which I call a Potato Chip Diz.

I made this at Living Water Pottery, a lovely local pottery shop,

My next blending project is a massive, whole Corriedale fleece that I bought a number of years ago. I finally dragged it out, no insect damage, thank goodness, washed it, dried it and now am flicking open the locks. The final plan is to weigh everything and blend in some russet colored llama and camel with the hand cards. Then, the final processing through the blending hackle and I will have mountains of ready to spin fiber.

I sell plastic comb blending hackle with potato chip diz at Garilynn Designs.

Diagonal garter stitch steering wheel cover

Last April, I was staying with MIL after her knee surgery. I was experiencing some pretty bad plantar fasciitis pain. On impulse,  I asked DH to visit and bring my spinning wheel and fiber bag that was sitting with it.

I'd not spun in several years and had some work to do to get back in the rhythm. The first roving I chose was from Mary Jane's Attic. 4 ounces of Merino wool in shades of green, I think it's a discontinued colorway. It spun up a bit thick and thin - due to the operator, not the fiber!

And amazingly, my plantar fasciitis pain was almost gone after treadling a couple of days. I would love to hear if other people have had this experience. I was unable to walk prior to treadling, one might have thought I was the one who had just had surgery!

I was spinning again like crazy. MIL lives in a city where there are lots of fiber resources, so when she would nap, I would drive and get more fiber. It was all for my health, of course, however, my insurance is still not quite applying those purchases to my deductible. Shucks.

Some months later, I had a good number of individual hand spun skeins from my stash of fiber.

Our local fiber shop, WC Mercantile, sent an email that Amy Herzog would be visiting. Amy is a lovely young lady and I bought her book on fit. Check out her website, Amy Herzog Designs. I simply could not show up without a project in hand. At the last moment, I grabbed this skein, some size 6 needles and started a project. Nothing really planned, just something to do while I listened.

As I was working on this, several wreath ideas were knoodling (knit+doodle) around. I cast on too few stitches for this to be a wreath, but it would fit my steering wheel.

I want to repeat what I say in the pattern:

"SAFETY FIRST!!!

I don't place the knitted item directly on the steering wheel, just in case it slips. For added safety, I use a strip of non-slip rug underlay. I cut a 2” strip with a total length of 46” in two pieces because the package of non-slip rug underlay was a piece 18” by 28”.

Place the non-slip material of your choice on steering wheel. Stretch cover to fit, keeping non-slip material in place. Wrap lashing around cover firmly, stretching to ensure that the cover does not slip in use. I tied mine together at center bottom and used a crochet chain to work the ends of the lashing so I don't have ends dangling while I drive.

As I use the cover, I plan to undo the lashing and move the cover around move less worn parts around. I will also be watching for fading in our lovely Texas sun. Most likely I will cover it if I park in direct sun since this is my precious handspun.

Driving with the cover in place is a tactile delight. The spin on this is soft and makes for a cushy, textured surface. It is certainly warm when I forget my gloves and I expect it will be cooler to touch in our blazing summers as well."

I've unlashed it and turned it once already. Other than some pills, it seems to hold up well. It's holding well and has not slipped. However, everyone needs to be absolutely certain that the cover holds and does not move! Don't play around with your safety!

The pattern is free. I could not think up a clever name for it, so it is named after its form and function. 

Diagonal garter stitch steering wheel cover 

I have a couple of videos showing some techniques used:

Thanks for stopping by and reading. 

 

Garilynn on etsy  Garilynn on Ravelry 

Heirloom - Tomato pincushions

Doing some knoodling (knit + doodling), I came up with a knitted version of the red tomato with strawberry pincushion that everyone used to have as part of their sewing tool arsenal.

Heirloom tomatoes come in shapes other than perfectly round and colors other than red, hence the purple and the yellow pear.

The $1 pattern for the red & purple is up on Ravelry:

Heirloom

The yellow pear version pattern will be up soon.

DH first grew yellow pear tomatoes for us many years ago. I had never seen such a thing. After that, not one made it to the table, they were all garden snacking food.

 

Garilynn on Ravelry   Garilynn on Etsy  Garilynn on Patternfish

Austin Cable Beanies and fingerless gloves

Looking back at some Christmas knitting:

This is a shorter version of my Austin Slouchy Cable Beanie http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/austin-slouchy-cable-beanie  I call this one "Austin Cable Beanie". I make 2 cable crosses instead of three and it fits just over the ears. Made of Lion Brand worsted weight Wool Ease for easy care. I always gift using washable, affordable yarns. I selfishly save the "good" stuff for me.

Of course I decided to make these starting on December 22. Austin Slouchy Cable Beanie is a fast knit and since I was not making Christmas dinner, I could devote all my time to speed knitting. 

I also created a new companion design, fingerless gloves that use the pointed cable motif from the top of the beanies. I'll have that pattern on Ravelry soon.

I made a Royal blue set for DD. Her dark hazel eyes are even more beautiful when she wears blue.

garilynn.esty.com  garilynn on Ravelry  garilynn on patternfish.com

November Promotion BOGO on Ravelry

Our wedding anniversary is this month and I'm having a promotion for my two deerstalker hat patterns. DH (pictured above in the Original Elementary) had encouraged me to start designing for years. I finally got started and now have 71 designs on Ravelry.

Elementary was one of my first designs. DH wears it whenever it finally gets cold here in the Heart of Texas. It's knit all in one piece and made in chunky yarn, so it makes a great last minute gift.

In response to several folks asking for a sewn version, I designed Elementary Putting Together the Pieces

Sadly, I could not get DH to model this one. The yarn is incredibly itchy, but looks great. Very tweedy and I love the way diagonal garter stitch looks like woven fabric. Hedda Woodin (designed and crafted by DH, check out his blog Toolmaking Art) is my model and she does not mind the itch. I have some Brooklyn Tweed "Loft" that I will use to make a wearable version for DH.

For the month of November, buy one of the Elementary patterns and I will gift you the other through your Ravelry account.

Gonna be a Big Star - Blanket

I was born and raised in Texas. As we are the "Lone Star State", one encounters stars on everything. I put together this collage of stars from some of the places and spaces near me.

One of my new designs, Gonna be a Big Star, makes a great motif for making pillows and blankets. I'm working on a bedspread size. Here is the first block:

It's 20" square. This photo shows it in an unblocked state, draped over a pillow. There a lots of ends to work in, so I will likely back it with fabric after completion. The fabric backing will also support the motifs and minimize stretching.  Here is the link for the pattern.

Gonna be a Big Star

I'll keep y'all posted on my progress.

Unnecessarily Huge knitting needles and crochet hook

Inspired by some meanderings around the internets, I requested that DH make knitting implements in size 50  25mm . Not one for just following directions - I had just requested a simple set of straights, he made a set of straight, 2 DPN, a crochet hook with an eye to make it an afghan hook and a sewing needle. Fans of the Japanese anime "Ranma 1/2" might recall the inspiration for the name of the needles and hooks.

I had originally started a huge version of one of my designs "Gonna be a big star", shown below in worsted weight (pattern available at garilynn.etsy.com Gonna be a big star )

I had finished one star section, weighted the yarn and found I would not have enough to finish the star section. I only have 6 pounds of this oatmeal cotton! The finished size would have been about 100". So, ripped back and started a seat cushion:

MIL had expressed a desire for a thin cushion to carry with her on walks to use when she rested. Her retirement community has wrought iron chairs and she wanted something a little more comfortable. This is a close up of the crochet test cushion. I have had DH give it the "princess and the pea" test and I fear that he will keep this one and I will be making another for MIL.

I used my Elastic Plastic Fantastic stitch markers while knitting the first sample, seen here in close up:

These stitch markers work very well on Unnecessarily Huge knitting needles.


Working with these is certainly different. I am used to throwing yarn with my index finger. With size 50 needles, I have to grasp both needles where they cross with my left hand and throw yarn held in my right hand. Somewhat awkward when you are used to flying speeds, but the huge needles and yarn make a fast project.

I made my Unnecessarily Huge yarn as I worked the project:

The yarn on the cone is about a worsted weight. I knit I cord on size 11 needles to make it Unnecessarily Huge yarn. I had only one cone of this particular yarn, so I could not strand it. My process is to knit a few yards of I cord, then secure the size 11 needle with the stitch markers (they cinch up nicely with the barrel cord lock). I pick up where I left off on the project, working until I run out of I cord yarn.

I have many cones of other yarn that will now be put in service to make Unnecessarily Huge yarn. I think I can get rid of some of the "what was I thinking" and "but it's such a good price" purchases. That 100" star will appear someday and then I'll have an excuse to replenish my stash.

I found this site to be inspirational with some nice giant knitting pictures, if somewhat beyond my Italian language skills:

Crowd knitting



DH's blog Toolmaking Art.


Find more of my work at garilynn.etsy.com, garilynn on Ravelry or garilynn on Patternfish

What the heck is "TFL"?

Working “TFL” as described on Raven Shawl http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/raven-shawl

One of my latest patterns has an instruction "K 2 tog TFL", meaning that you will knit 2 stitches together through front loops. I am a combination knitter, so I have to do a bit of convolution to make the stitches in YO, K 2 tog right leaning mesh have a smooth appearance with the second stitch on top of the final worked stitch.

If you are not a combination knitter, you might be helped by the video that I listed in the Raven Shawl pattern. http://www.theweeklystitch.com/2011/12/trellis-lace.html

Here you are looking at the next 2 stitches to be worked :

The stitch that will be on top of the finished stitch is the second stitch. The two stitches must be turned or worked in such a way for the second stitch to be on top. 

Here the needle tip of the right needle has been inserted from the front of both stitches, going in through the far side of the second stitch and then through the first stitch. 

Another way to work this stitch is to turn the two stitches around, see the loop of the second stitch is in position to be on the top of the stitch to be made:

Here are the two stitches turned around and on right needle and ready to be slipped back to left needle.

The completed stitch

Both methods will result in the correct placement of the stitches to complete YO, K 2 tog TFL.