Stuffed Toy Floor Bag

My kids stuff toy collection is getting out of control, mostly due to grandparents but we are just as guilty. And since they are young, I have all their toys in the family room so I can watch them from the kitchen and the pile was becoming unsightly, overflowing their corner. One evening while on Pinterest, I came across an idea to use a bean bag as storage for soft toys. I also found a company that makes a bag but charges more than I wanted to spend. I mean it is just a giant bag.

My version is a giant floor bag, large enough for 2-3 little ones to sit on.

The girls love it.

Diameter of top and bottom circle pieces is 36". Side panel (in grey) measures 15"x 120".

Fabric is a double sided fur fleece.

I cut a 24" diameter inner circle in the top to create a mesh fabric window and zipper opening. The mesh fabric is an old laundry bag but you can buy mesh fabric like this from Seattle Fabrics. I used the small inner circle as a pattern for the mesh window adding 1" more for seam allowance. 

A 1/2" binding strip of sheer tricot was applied to the cut edge of the mesh so one side of the zipper could be sewn on to it. The fur fleece was overlapped to finish the other side of the zipper.

May is National Celiac Awareness and a lesson on knitting gauge

May is National Celiac Awareness month. I do not have celiac disease, AFAIK, but I do have non-celiac gluten intolerance. This means I have to eat as if I do have celiac disease. I had written up a long, boring blog post about where I am now and then decided that no one really wants to know all that. I will say that I do feel better after going gluten free, but it is still a struggle. The last 6 months have been especially difficult for various reasons and I'm trying to bring back the balance between what I eat with how I feel. Anyway, if you are wondering if gluten is an issue for you, I really like the information at the HealthNOW website which has a questionnaire* and other resources. There are no laboratory tests for non-celiac gluten intolerance and so it is not recognized in the wider medical community. Acceptance is slowly coming as education and awareness grows. Doctors do not really know what to do about it yet. Spread the word and let people know this is a real thing.

Onto knitting.

Recently I finished up these socks made with Patons Kroy 4ply sock yarn. It is a heavy fingering almost sport weight yarn. I knit them up on size 1 needles with a cast on of 72 inches. My gauge was 9 stitches to the inch. I should have cast on 76 stitches to get the finished measurement that I needed, but that proved too large. I went down to 72 which was perfect. Socks are normally knit at a dense gauge for durability.

So I cast on some baby socks with the left overs assuming my gauge would remain consistent, which it was.

The sock on the left is my first attempt. Isn't it cute?! The socks were intended for my nearly 2 year old nephew. I checked my gauge and measurements as I went along and things were looking all right, but I had this nagging in the back of my head that it wasn't. My dear nephew couldn't get them on. We couldn't even get them on his 4 month old brother. The sock had very little stretch because of such a dense gauge combined with a small circumference.

So I ripped out one sock and knit up another with the same cast on with size 2 needles. What a difference! The socks have plenty of stretch. I could have stayed with size 1 needles and cast on more stitches but I would have still had the no-stretch issue. I think these will fit or be just a little big. I ran short of yarn, so pulled out another color for the heel and toes. I just need to knit up the second sock. Fingers crossed that these will work.

*I had 23 of the symptoms listed in this questionnaire!

Spinning - Summer Berries pt. 3

Spinning 8 oz of corriedale with a spindle takes a long time. At least it has for me. The balls are the plying balls ready for plying. I spun up the singles with the intent of making a 3-ply yarn. The larger ball is what I most recently spun up. The singles gave me a lot of trouble when wrapping the plying ball because one of the singles kept breaking. This is when I learned to do spit splicing, but I can't say I love that technique.

The spindle contains yarn made by chain plying the left over extra singles from the plying balls. I'm currently plying the yarn on this same spindle, which is getting very heavy. We'll see how long this last process takes.

Knitting - Bramwell socks

More vanilla socks using Patons Kroy 4 ply sock yarn. The yarn gave me difficulty with gauge again. I started with an 80 stitch cast on, tried again with 76 and finally settled on 72. For some reason, I did want these socks to match with the stripes, but I was not able to do so. The yarn balls run short on yardage and I didn't dare pull out enough of the second ball to start at the same place as the first. I did have to pull about 6 yards out of a third ball to finish up the toes. The rest of the third ball will end up as socks for my nephews.

I named these socks Bramwell because they were knit while doing a rewatch of the BBC series. Eleanor Bramwell is a female doctor in Victorian society that treats the poor in the slums of East London. Series 1-3 are very good - some of the stories deal with contemporary issues but with the appropriate historical setting and reactions. There is a bit of adult content, so be forewarned. One last warning. There is a 4th series, but it is absolutely dreadful. The sets, characters, and story lines are so drastically changed that they bear no resemblance to the  earlier episodes. The series is available on Netflix or you can buy the DVD's off Amazon.

Blouses - yes, they need ironing

One of the consequences of my blouse buying spree is the sad fact that cotton blouses wrinkle when washed. The fabric will look worn and tired (see the picture below). This is true of just about any woven cotton fabric unless they are pre-treated with nasty chemicals. My blouses were getting little rotation in my wardrobe because they would hang, wrinkled, in the closet bypassed for easy wearing knits. In order for my blouses to get worn, I had to develop a new habit and like it. I've never been opposed to ironing, but standing at the ironing board for a long time is something I've never liked much.

So back in December, I pulled out all of my wrinkled clothes and and spent about 5 hours ironing. Adding DH's shirts to the mix would have been a bit over the top, I think. The goal was to catch up. Now, about once a week I pull out just the 3-4 wrinkled items and give them a good ironing. My blouses are back in rotation and not merely taking up space.

One thing that helps tremendously is that I pop in my earbuds and listen to my favorite audio podcasts. Time passes quickly and that chore is not a chore any longer.

I've also rediscovered starch. Cottons will look almost new with some light starching (photo above). I used to buy starch in aerosol cans. Not only was it more expensive, but who knows what nasty chemicals are released when you spray that starch. I invested in a concentrated 1/2 gallon of Sta-Flo starch. It has a few simple ingredients - water, cornstarch, borax, and a few unnamed ingredients. I suppose I could make my own, but I have not ventured down that path. The bottle contains directions of how to dilute it and it's a snap with spray bottles that have a dilution guide. This 1/2 gallon bottle will last a looong time.

Anyway, what say you about ironing? Any favorite tips, irons, starch recipes?