Paying the bills…

I use this and love it!

I get free stuff with SwagBucks!

Mission Vacuum-Accomplished!

Much research and three hours of foot pounding later..this tool joined my entourage…

The Bissell Velocity. It has the cool color of a Dyson, and a cooler price. So far so good, it’s working well! I feel like the house is cleaner already!!! At least the parts I have gotten too.. I sustained . . . → Read More: Mission Vacuum-Accomplished!

Loom Knitting Air Date on Knitty Gritty!

Well It’s finally here! The air date for the Loom Knitting episode of Knitty Gritty is up! It’s so exciting to know when  it’s coming! And so hard to wait! Isela and I were both asked to send in project ideas and video’s for possible shows  last year, and although Vickie would have liked to do two shows they cut it to one, and Isela was chosen… (let’s face it …she is just cuter than me!) So she went,she saw, she taped.. and now we get to see her on HGTV in July.. Details as follows:

Knitty Gritty
Episode DKNG-708

AIR TIMES:


July 09, 2007 7:00 AM ET/PT

Loom Knitting
We’re all familiar with those colorful plastic looms you find in craft stores. And we all know looms are great for hats and baby blankets, but did you know you can make cables on a loom? How about socks with decreases? And what about lace? Up until recently, no one knew how to create these patterns, but designer Isela Phelps is taking the world by storm, showing everyone that loom-knitting is as versatile as needle-knitting. Watch as she gives us a primer.Go to DIYNetwork.com now to learn more about these projects!

Looks like I am getting up early on July 9th!!! Congrats Isela.. and hey.. there is always next season! I can try again!

How To’s-Day: Darning Socks!

You spend hours and hours knitting a sock, you wear them,love them, show them off with shoes chosen specially for their’ hand knit sock showing off qualities and then BAM! They spring a hole! What is a person to do? You could use the Yarn Harlot method.. shouting loudly DARN SOCKS as you stand over the trash can and dramatically toss them in.. or you could darn them.

I have a pair of felted slippers that I made that sprung a hole! I love these slippers they are warm they are comfy and really they are not all that old and I was not ready to part with them so I went out and learned a bit about darning socks!

There is a great tutorial on the HJS Studio site, and that is what I generally went by to get the job done. Here is what you need:

A sock or other piece of knitting with a hole in it.
Sewing thread of matching or close to matching color of the item to be darned.
Sewing needle.
About a yard of yarn that matches the item.
A tapestry needle.
A darning egg, or a light-bulb.

Basically what you do is to make a framework with the sewing thread, and work duplicate stitch on it until you have fixed and filled in the gap.

 

I am very glad that the slipper I was darning was felted, I am not that great at the duplicate stitch and so it didn’t look too hot. Not bad for a first try but certainly not perfect.  But if it gets my slippers off the injured reserve pile and back into play? What do I care!

The tutorial I used can be found here. There is a text only tutorialat eHow, quite an interesting site.

Annie’s Attic has a little duplicate stitch tutorial, and Lucia ‘The Knitting Feind’ has a more detailed tutorial here.

If you happen to have alot of socks to darn, or just really want a darning egg they have them at Lehman’s. I love that place! It’s sort of local and they have all kinds of non-electric gadgets. (not to mention a cute quilt store that has a small cache of interesting yarns across the way!)

Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks’ How To!! Don’t forget to stop by next week when we answer the question.. just how do I use this  flower loom thing.. and why oh why do those pegs keep falling out of it???