Curious Machines

My mom came upon this curious machine at a local antique store in Mound, MN.  This antique sock knitting machine promises to cure the "Home Money Problem" while also keeping your toes warm.  I have yet to figure it out, but wanted to share it for its industrial beauty and its interesting marketing angle.  Too bad it now costs more to make socks than buy them!

Old Woman

Golden Thrift #2

Holy Moly!  I love finding special notions of yester-year.  Dylan's mom is in the process of tidying up her craft/sewing room.  She's big into antiques and vintage, and was kind enough to let me pillage through her stash!  Above are several of my favorite finds!

You Hold the Key

Daydreams

Back in the Saddle Again

Hey y'all.  The cold snap has finally come and I realized I am without a cozy pair of mittens to carry my phalanges through this soon-to-be tundra.  Last year I stumbled across this yarn at Coldwater Collaborative in Excelsior.  Every year they have a great Super Bowl Sale where you find yourself freezing in a line down the block next to fellow knitters.  I do admit that experience was worth it, having scored a bag of GGH Savanna yarn.  This is an awesome blend of alpaca, linen, new wool and nylon.  Sounds like a strange mix, but it has a great single ply dread lock look (which strangely I find rather pleasing).

Long story short, I needed to get back into knitting, and am excited about this little project!  I have played with plaited cables, mostly in lazy swatch knitting, but have never used them in an actual finished piece.  Here's a great 4 row plaited cable recipe I'm using for these sweet garter stitch mitts!

Plaited Cable:
Row 1: k12
Row 2: p12
Row 3: k4, c8f
Row 4: p12
Row 5: k12
Row 6: p12
Row 7: c8b, k4
Row 8: p12

Mini Friends

Small things are always fascinating.  Micro miniatures, terrariums, and finger foods have a lot of offer for being so slight.  I had a few spools of 10/2 cotton for my knitting machine laying around, and thought I'd try a little experiment:  teensy weensy crochet projects.  I bought myself a new 1.30mm crochet hook (and a magnifying glass), and got to work.  Here are the fruits of my labor.  

What to do with these little guys is the question....

One idea....

Magical Workings

Maybe it's my inner hippie or my inner nomad.  I love casual and functional design, what can I say.  Oh, and I also named my cat Smiegel in honor of Lord of the Rings (they had magic, right?).  Whatever it is, I was inspired to create this little magical pouch.  Crochet has so many uses, and as I have regained the crochet bug, I'm beginning to explore the possibilities.  So, here we go inner hippie.  Something to put your patchouli in.