Miss Ellen's Mount Hood Doorstop

When my friend Ellen heard me describe the Sea Stone Paperweights I've been making from special stones I pick up along the beach, she knew she had to commission me to make one for her.  But the thing was, what she really wanted was a doorstop...something larger that would hold a door open or closed.

Ellen has been collecting special stones for many years now, so she had quite a few to choose from.
She had planned to find one on an upcoming trip, but when that trip became impossible because of some health concerns, she decided to find one from her collection.

She called one day, excited to tell me about the stone she had found.  She said she calls it her "Mt. Hood Doorstop" because it is shaped like a mountain, with a point on the top.  She had certain colors she wanted, to match her decor...white, and gray, and mauve.  She was afraid the sharp edge on the rock might be a problem, and we discussed the possibility of covering the point at the top with crochet, so it wouldn't be too sharp.  There were also some sharp edges on the side and bottom of the piece, as well.

As we brainstormed the doorstop design, I began to get an image in my mind of what this creation could look like.  We both began to get excited as we imagined our creation!  I suggested that I could do the white top at the peak resembling snow, and then do some of the gray in an openwork pattern so the rock could show through.  I asked her if she would mind if I used some forest green along the lower flanks of the mountain, and she suggested that maybe I could use the mauve to represent flowers sprinkled through the forest.  Later she called me back and asked if I could make some white parts that would flow down like glaciers...I had already planned to do that.

I was very excited when her husband dropped by soon after with the rock and some color swatches.

The front face of the rock

The back face of the rock

A couple of the colors I had in my stash of crochet thread, but the others proved to be elusive.  Apparently there is not much call for mauve crochet thread these days!  But I managed to collect the  colors I needed.

The tools and materials for the doorstop

I had asked my husband if we had anything that could smooth the sharp edges on the stone, and he said no.  He suggested emery cloth, but I didn't know where I could get some.  One day, as I was running my finger along the rough edges of the stone, I got an idea.  Would an emery board work?  I had a few around, and tried one.  It smoothed the sharp edges of the stone into a fine dust, without marring the flat surfaces of the rock.  Praise the Lord!  Problem solved.

I was now able to begin crocheting the cover for the rock.  My plan was simple (or so I thought).  I would make the "snowy top" first, then do most of the lacy gray openwork part, then crochet the bottom green and mauve part, and last I would use the gray to connect the top and bottom parts.

I began with the white, making a relatively amorphous cone for the top of the mountain.  I wanted some "glaciers" that would come farther down the mountain than others.

The "snow" for the top of the mountain

When this was completed, I tried it on.  It looked ok.

Next, I worked on the openwork with the gray thread.

At first, I just worked a network around the white edges, but I didn't like the corners that this formed in the white thread.  I ripped it out, and worked a round of sc in gray around all the white edges, then worked the network again.  This looked much better.

Now, I was ready to work the most difficult part of the doorstop...the green bottom part.  This was difficult because the rock was such a complex shape.  I decided to work a flat piece for the bottom that would more or less match the shape of the bottom of the rock.

Comparing the flat bottom to the bottom of the rock

When I had the flat part more or less matching the shape of the rock bottom, I worked a round of crochet all around it and began working upward in rounds.  I had decided to use a shell stitch for the sides of the forest, and intersperse pink bobbles among them for the flowers.  After I had worked several rounds of this, I tried it on the rock.

It was a bit loose...especially at the top, where the rock was rapidly decreasing in size.

I tried the top on, too...just to get an idea of how they would fit together.  I decided I would need to decrease several times on the edge where the stitch marker is, to make it fit better.  I ended up ripping back the gray part, and redoing parts of it, before working the joining round.

 Here is the finished product.  I wish the green part was a little less wonky, but overall I am pleased with the results.  I might just have to look for more mountain-shaped rocks!  I think Miss Ellen will love it.

 The back side of the mountain is not quite so neat and tidy, because of its uneven shape.

Side view

Opposite side view

Looking at the side views shows how wonky the shape really was...this is what made it complicated to fit the crochet to the rock.

Here are a couple more photos of the mountain, because I had so much fun taking them!

When my daughter saw the photos I had taken, she suggested that I do some with blue sky as the background, so it would really look like a mountain.  So here are a couple shots.

P.S.  This doorstop is a Christmas present for Miss Ellen...let's keep the photos to ourselves until Christmas!

Frugality and Creativity

Frugality seems to be ingrained deep in my nature.  I balk at paying full price, and love to shop at second-hand or thrift stores, to find things I can use at a reduced price.  So I often find myself hesitating at paying full price for yarn, especially since I began occasionally buying yarn wholesale.  But sometimes a yarn is just so special or so beautiful, that I allow myself to splurge a bit. 

Last year, I found myself eyeing some balls of Patons Kroy Socks, a lovely variegated yarn with beautiful colorways.  I think it was even on sale, and I had a pattern to use it for.  But the problem was, that even on sale, I would have to pay twice as much to make this pattern, because the yardage was less per ball.  The yarn I have typically used for my Scalloped Crocheted Fingerless Gloves is Red Heart's Heart & Sole, which has 213 yds. per 50g ball; but the Kroy Socks only has 166 yards.  This meant that I would likely need two balls.  I wrestled with the decision, but finally gave in and bought two balls.

Scalloped Crocheted Fingerless Gloves

As I began making the gloves, I enjoyed seeing the interplay of color.  The yarn was enjoyable to work with, and I soon had completed a pair of gloves.  But it seemed like there was still quite a bit of yarn left.  It seemed such a waste not to use it for something!  And this started the creative juices flowing.  I mulled it over, and decided to try making a pair of knitted gloves with the remainder.  I made a gauge swatch, and selected a pattern stitch, then hopefully cast on.  After knitting ribbed cuffs, I switched to the pattern stitch, and shortly thereafter started the thumb shaping. 

When I had completed the glove, I weighed it and the remaining yarn.  It would be close!  The completed gloves used up all but a short length of the yarn.  But what a satisfying feeling to get a second pair of gloves out of the two skeins of yarn! 



The completed knitted gloves

Sometimes frugality forces us to use our creativity.  If I hadn't been so frugal, I never would have created this second design.  Hooray for frugality!

Inspired by Stained Glass

In my last post, I indicated that I would post some pictures of items I have made that were in some respect inspired by stained glass.  I hope you haven't been holding your breath in anticipation of this event!

Here are some pieces I have made that have stained-glass-like elements to them.  The first is a beaded needle case with a spiral color pattern.  I love the way the transparent glass beads glow against the opaque black ones:

The next piece is a rather wild felted knitted hat with a stained glass motif:

Here's a closeup of a tam I showed in a previous post...the colors are really vibrant against the black:

Another hat with bright colorful bobbles and pompom against a black background:

And yet another hat, with blocks of color and stranded patterns interspersed with black:

Last hat--A Rose Window-type pattern in fair isle:

Here's a braided necklace with a glass pendant:

And next, a coin purse made from a recycled sweater with a stained-glass-like color pattern:

And finally, a double-knitted scarf with periwinkle blue and black patterning, which is reversed on the back of the fabric:

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of my creations.  Coming soon, a free pattern or two!

The Predicaments of Pattern Production, or, The Frustrations of Fashioning a Finished Fiber Fabrication

After working all year on the same two patterns, I finally got both of them self-published.  You may wonder why it would take over half a year to get two patterns written up; I am asking myself the same question.

I guess the simple answer to this is modern technology (more specifically, computer programs, and my own ineptitude with them!).  In trying to create a pattern that looked “professional”, I had begun creating knitting charts in Excel, using the Aire River Knitting Font, and pasting them into my Publisher file as I created the pattern.  This works great, but I found earlier this year that when I would make a pdf of the chart, some of the lines on the chart would come out with uneven thickness (See the example below).

 This is not horrible, but it bugged me that when I designed the charts in Excel, they looked fine, but when made into a pdf, they looked different.  This seemed to happen randomly, with different results at different times.  Adding to this problem was the fact that, in order to create the charts the way I wanted them, I needed to paste them into another program to tweak a few things before inserting them into my Publisher file.  This seemed to create even more problems.

It seemed like the three programs I was using didn’t interface very well with each other.  I tried many different ways to save the files and many different ways to insert them, but remained unsatisfied.  But eventually I found that, though my charts didn’t look perfect on the screen, they did seem to print up reasonably well.  So I decided to use the best ones, even though they still irritate me.

Another problem that hindered the production of these two patterns was that I decided to make some changes in the design as I went along.  Each time I made a change, I re-knitted the pattern, to be sure that I had written the instructions clearly and accurately.  This took additional time, effort, and focus.

In the first pattern, the Bavarian Twist Stitch Christmas Stocking,

Bavarian Twist Stitch Christmas Stocking

I decided to use a ribbing for the bottom of the foot, instead of stockinette, after designing and writing up the pattern.  The instructions had to be rewritten, and some of the charts had to be redone, as well.  Then I realized that because the two sides of the sock were mirror images of each other, I needed two separate charts, rather than one repeated chart where the gusset is decreased.  Then I tried creating a pdf file from my Publisher file, and discovered that my charts looked wonky because of the uneven thickness of the lines on the chart!  But I finally got the pattern published.

The second pattern was the Collared Knitted Capelet.

Collared Knitted Capelet

 I had thought this one would be easier to chart than the previous one, because it contains no cables.  But these charts also gave me trouble because of the uneven thickness of the lines.   And I kept finding “hidden” objects in my chart that didn’t show up in Publisher, but jeered at me from my pdf’d chart, saying,  “Catch me if you can!”   To make matters worse, I came up with a “better idea” for the crocheted edging.  This meant that I had to knit the pattern again to try out my idea.  Unfortunately, after re-knitting the garment using my new idea, I discovered that the old way actually looked the best!  But in the process, I had discovered a way to keep the front edges from rolling so much.  So I started knitting again, to check out my pattern description of this technique.

Now that these two patterns are completed, I am breathing a sigh of relief.  I am hoping that my next pattern can be written up with much less trouble.  If only I weren’t such a perfectionist!

"How did I do that...?"

I love learning and developing new knitting and crochet techniques.  Occasionally I will just pick up yarn and needles or hook, and play.  This can either be exhilarating, or extremely frustrating, depending on whether my idea "works" or not.  I will often start with an existing technique, and play a "What If?" game.  What would happen if I wrapped the yarn a different way, or combined elements of two different stitch patterns, or tried to imitate a knitting technique in a piece of crochet (or vice versa)...?


Earlier this year, I decided to use some yarn from my stash to make some fingerless gloves, which seem to be all the rage at the moment (The aforementioned gloves rapidly disappeared at the bazaar last weekend!).  I decided to crochet the gloves, but wanted to add some special touches to make them unique. 

I had been playing around with crocheted foundation rows, and had come up with some interesting ideas.  A foundation row is used in place of the starting chain at the beginning of the work, and is basically a way of crocheting the chain and the first row simultaneously, which seems to avoid the problem of a tight chain at the beginning edge of the work.  This experimentation (a "beaded" foundation row which I hope to use in a future project) sparked the idea to try creating a scalloped foundation row to begin the gloves.  I liked the way this looked.  The great thing about this is that the same scalloped edging can be used at the other end of the gloves, as a standard edging.  What fun! 

The Scalloped Foundation Row

The Edging at the Other End of the Glove

Sometimes I am too clever for my own good, though.  If I neglect to write out how I did a technique at the time that I create it, I may have a hard time deciphering it when I later try to duplicate it.  Last weekend, I picked up one of my products at the bazaar and said, "How did I do that...?"  Hopefully, I wrote it down, and maybe one day I will find it among the sheaves of scribbled-upon paper that comprise my pattern "library". 

To continue my story, a couple of months ago, a lady convo'd me on Etsy to ask if she could buy the pattern for my fingerless gloves.  I told her I would try to get it ready to publish, but I didn't know if I had written down the pattern.  A vigorous search yielded no sign of a pattern.  So I pulled the gloves out of my stock so that I could re-crochet them.  True to form, when I examined the gloves, I asked myself, "How did I do that?"  It took me a couple of days to figure out what I had done!

But I finally did manage to recreate the gloves.  Here are a couple of photos of the finished product:

By the way, I did finally get the pattern written and published:

Fingerless Glove Pattern on Etsy

If you prefer, the pattern is also available as a download on Ravelry.com:

Fingerless Glove Pattern on Ravelry

Cross-Pollination II

The second shop that we visited on our trip to Lincoln City was Mossy Creek Pottery.  It is just down the road from Alder House, and is actually closer to the highway.

This is a gallery with quite a variety of pottery and fused glass items.  There are both functional and purely decorative items here.  I love the "tiled" texture in these lovely vases:

And the vivid blue in this soup tureen took my breath away (wouldn't that beautiful gradation make a great knitted or woven scarf??).

Here are some beautiful but functional blues:

My husband liked this wall pocket, tucked away in the little corridor between two of the rooms:

I liked it, but was more drawn to this one:

In the next room, we found this shimmering platter:

And also these scenic plates, mounted on the wall:

I have always liked the contrast of matte and shiny, earthy and colorful in this line of products:

And I found this little cabbage-y tea set to be enchanting:

There was a whole shelf of shimmery urns:

Here's a closeup of my favorite one:

Check out the texture on the teacups and the cannister:

Even the bottom of the teacup has texture!!  I love it!  If I remember right, these teacups were more the size of a soup bowl.

 And last but not least, here are some bowls with great texture.  The center one reminds me of a crocheted basket.

There is much more in the shop--these are just some of my favorite pieces.  I think I need to go find some yarn--my mind is brimming with possibilities!  I hope the tour has inspired you, as well.  Go forth and create!