SpiderWomanKnits

Free Pattern and New to the Shop: Textured Cowl

First, many, many heart felt thanks for your support of my farm and fibery endeavours. I shipped out the first batch of yarn today and have more going out tomorrow. I love knowing that Indy and Hayden are "out there" now, along with my daily chores and labor, love, laughs, time, good energy and everything else that goes into small scale fiber production. If you happen to be on the receiving end of a skein I'm really looking forward to your feedback. You can find indy hayden twenty twelve as part of the Rav database too. If you're in the market for some sweet alpaca yarn you can find some here. Yahoo!  

Ok, so, here we go again folks! I wrote up another addictive (warned) and fun cowl project for you that is sure to warm your needles and your necks. I'm calling it the Textured Cowl, because I am much more creative with my knits than my naming, and you can find it for FREE as a Ravelry Download.

I really love this cowl. I think it's suitable for a man or woman depending on the color you use and I also think that depending on color it takes on very different feelings. I can't wait to knit one in a sweatshirty gray. I am staring at an absurd amount of super bulky in my stash but, of course, not that color. 

I feel like such a bore being redundant but it must be said that I love offering patterns for free, in turn, I humbly ask that you direct people who are interested in purchasing a cowl to my Etsy shop, please do not sell any yourself. I'm going to try something new here. I want my patterns to be available to everyone (read free) but if you've knit (and enjoyed) my patterns before and feel that they are worth something to you or feel inclined to contribute to my design work I've added a PayPal donation button to the sidebar. I'll be sure to keep the patterns coming. Thank you so much! 

Whew. Now that I got that out of the way. I can't wait to hear what you think about this knit and look forward to seeing your creations on Ravelry. If you don't happen to be a knitter, this cowl is currently available in my Esty shop and ready to ship or you can choose your own color and let me knit for you, which I love to do. 

Enjoy! And many heartfelt blessings and thanks, 

xo Spidey 

 

whirlwind to the shore

Jorn and I went down to New Jersey on Saturday for a family gathering. It was a wonderful whirlwind and we even managed to squeeze in a trip to the shore before we headed back on Sunday morning. It was two hours very well spent. I just love the sea. Everyone was gone, it was like we had the whole place to ourselves. We wandered the shoreline, under the docks, around the amusement park and gathered treasures, of course. When we arrived back in Vermont we still had sand between our toes. What a delight for mountain dwellers. And, what a delight for a mother of three to have that time with my first born. The best treasure of all. 

in our garden : husk cherries

They go by many names, husk cherries, ground cherries and cape gooseberries are just a few and I am basically obsessed with them for their flavor and for their form.  They are delightfully easy to grow and are said to reseed themselves easily although this is the first year we've had them in our garden so I can't say that for sure. I'd love to make jam or a pie with them but for now they aren't getting much further than the garden. It's almost impossible not to peel and eat them right on the spot but be careful because the green ones have a toxin that can be poisonous so make sure you have a ripe one before you start peeling. If you haven't ever grown these in your garden before I highly recommend them. The taste is almost indescribable, like tropical tomatoes. Here are some links with more great info about them.

How to Grow and Use These Berry Sized Fruits

Wiki Page for Physalis/Husk Cherries

The Cape Gooseberry

Mother Earth News

renew

{our pole bean sprouts}

Everything is waking up, stretching, starting over again, or starting a new. It's invigorating, exciting and energizing. Spring is easy to celebrate.

We hope you have a lovely holiday, whatever you may be celebrating, filled with lots of lovely and happiness and that you find yourself reaching for new heights with many new hopes and dreams and just as much vigor as these humble and tender little plants.

oooxxx (as always)

Spidey and Family

{our beet starts}

Make It : Tooth Pillow So Quick So Easy

One of Jorn's buddies from school has his first wiggly tooth, but he didn't have a tooth pillow. So I whipped one up in under an hour of leisurely sewing. Here are some very pithy instructions in case you want to make one too. I had to take the pictures when I was working on it at night so the photos aren't the best but you'll get the idea.

You'll need:

fabric for the pillow (how much will depend on how big of a pillow you want)

fabric for the pocket (just a wee bitty scrap, unless the tooth fairy leaves large objects in your house)

a wee bitty piece of white woolen felt, or any felt you have

thread and a hand sewing sewing needle

disappearing ink pen

Instructions to Make it!

First grab any book lying near you that would make a good size pillow, alternatively you can measure and cut a square or rectangle to the size of your liking. I had this vintage book laying near-by and absolutely no motivation to walk upstairs to get my cutting mat and ruler, so I used it.

Trace two pieces of your main pillow fabric using your book and the disappearing ink pen. Cut them out. Set them aside.

Measure and cut a small pocket sized piece from your pocket fabric. I just did this by hand and eye. Fold in each edge about 1/4", press if you want, and sew around to make a nice tidy edges/hems. Set aside. (Not pictured but see the pocket in the picture below?)

Draw a tooth on your white felt using your disappearing ink pen and cut it out, right away, because you are using disappearing ink. You can either glue this onto the center of your pocket or sew it on either by hand or with your machine (I sewed it on by hand since it is small and fiddly) 

Pin your completed pocket, centered, to the right side of one of your pieces of pillow fabric. (Mine is missing the felt tooth because I sewed mine on at the very end but it is much, much easier to do this before you sew your pocket instead.)

Top stitch around three sides of the same hem stitching you did before to attach your pocket to your pillow fabric. Be sure to leave the top open for your pocket!

Then place your two pillow pieces right sides facing together and in. Pin in place (or not if you don't want to). Sew around leaving a 1/4"-1/2" seam allowance or whatever you prefer leaving a small opening at the bottom center so you will be able to stuff your pillow.

Trim your edges and corners tidy and then turn the pillow right side out.

Stuff your pillow using poly fill, wool, or whatever you have available and prefer. Knead your pillow so it's nice and fluffy but still firm.

Hand stitch your opening shut using a ladder stitch (here's a link to a great visual PDF tutorial from Sewing Stars) and then you are done! Admire your handiwork and then gift it to any little being with a wiggly tooth!

This pillow measured about 9" when finished. Enjoy and if you make one let me know! I'd love to see it!

Stacks

 

 

stacks of things throughout my home 

what do you have all stacked up?

* btw, I have a serious problem collecting the Darling Clementine boxes. I fear the day that they stop making them with wood. I see more and more cardboard ones or clementines in plastic bags these days! gack!

'tis a gift to be simple

It feels good to be inspired. Especially by something so simple when life demands things to be so busy. 

Day 19: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Under Foot: Around our House

 

So many textures. So much diversity in feeling. So much support for the goings on of a family of five. So many surfaces to clean.

Day 7: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Some pictures from our day at the Fair and the Show. 

The Village Green at the Antique Fair. Dorset really is a lovely town. I'd suggest moving there if you have a spare 1,000,000 dollars.

Loved this!

I really wanted this wooden egg stand (under the scale) but they wanted $95 for it so it stayed put.

This barrel was my texture crush of the day. 

An antique swift. Because what kind of knitter would I be if I didn't take a picture of it?!

All in all I was really underwhelmed by this fair. There weren't many vendors and they were really asking far too much for what they were offering. We were the youngest people there and the loudest. It was so quiet. Like in a weird way. I wanted to grab an antique horn blow it and yell WAKE UP PEOPLE! But instead we just looked around, ate some hot dogs and then trotted over to the horse show. 

Which was just absolutely-picture-perfect beautiful, btw. Really. This was the nicest setting I have ever attended a horse show in. I used to compete professionally (Hunter-Jumpers) before I started having kids. I really miss riding and competing. I am very competitive when it comes to sports and games.

I won't bore you with the million and a half photos I took of horses but here are some jumpers that I really loved. 

We walked all the stables. I fell in love with a horse named Ester (go figure). And Simonne, well Simonne, is taking after her momma. This girl DID NOT want to leave the "E-Haw-Haw's". She watched the kids class from the stands and pet as many horses as she could. (Jorn found some boys to play with and spent the majority of the time looking for toads in a stream) When it was time to go this is what she looked like. Tears streaming down her cheeks. I see ponies in our future :)

Day 1: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Isn't this birch tree amazing? The colors, the textures all on one single stationary object. So many layers it almost seems impossible. I am not sure if I've ever seen a tree with so much diversity. It makes me want to quilt.