Bazaar Harvest: the Dahlhouse, Episode 2

Over the course of the week, I've had a chance to ponder and come to conclusions on a couple things. First, I'm going to continue with this video-blog for a while, and just see where it goes. Also, I've decided to call it, the Dahlhouse — not too clever, not too punny. It's how I refer to our home, so it seems an appropriate title for a chronicle of our goings on. With that all covered, it's been a busy week, so let's get started!

Finished objects

The first Owlie sock is finished. Barely! The toe decreases in the pattern continue until eight stitches are left. I generally don't like to decrease that much. The sock fit at my usual 24 stitches, so that's where I stopped — with less than five yards left! Hopefully the skein for the second sock has better yardage.

I also finished knitting the Ignot cowl, which will be donated to our church bazaar. The yarn is a spindle spun 3-ply from a polwarth silk blend by, Darn Knit Anyway, wrapped with baby alpaca during plying.

Works in Progress

There was a lot of progress made on the mitten spin. In addition to finishing the singles, I got the yarn plied and dyed. All that's left is to knit the mittens. The yarn is 6-ply, which required some tricks to accomplish. I put together a heck, a tool for managing multiple singles by adding tension and keeping them separate, by stabbing pens into a diaper box. With the heck in place, winding the plying ball was pretty straightforward.

The dishcloth pattern mentioned last week is actually one I designed. It's a free Ravelry download, and you can get it here.

A friend from childhood put on a fitness camp for women on Saturday. What she was doing struck me as so amazing, I knew I had to go. It was a three hour drive, so I left the night before and stayed in town there. It's the first time I've gone anywhere by myself since training for the airport, about eight years ago. It was an amazing day, and so much fun! Check out her Facebook page.

I'm almost done with Country Heat, just one day left! It had been so much fun, which has me excited to get a dance off challenge group going. October 18, Cize vs. Country Heat, pick the program you want to do, and join the group! If you want more details, please send me a message. You can get a hold of me via my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/dahlhousegym

Odds and ends

We picked the last of what was in the garden. Plants are not my forte! Everything we produced is dwarf size.

See you next week!

Comments

Evergreen asymmetry

This is a chart I've been meaning to get to for a while. The Christmas before last, I was making a whole bunch of Christmas ornament gift toppers . I wanted each to be unique, so some of the miniature sweaters were adorned with duplicate stitch in traditional knit motifs. I hit a snag with the tree. A row of perfect triangle trees is cute. A single triangle tree is not so cute. A chart for a small tree is not hard to find. One which is not symmetrical is. Enter the sketch pad. My goal was a scraggly tree, which was small, but was still recognizable as a tree. This is the result. As a matter of personal preference, I think this looks best when the chart is turned upside down and is used on a piece being worked from the top. That way, the top of the tree comes to a nice point.

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Exciting developments

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Cricket in a Biscuit

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