Its Anew

A new day. A new start. For our country and why not for ourselves as well? I know that I need to be renewed. I thank our God for allowing each day to be fresh and clean. I vowed during this sometimes  mostly vicious campaign season that whomever would win, I would get behind that person and join in the vision for our country and I will do that. We all watched history in the making! How has everyone been? Why not take one day at a time and begin to slow down life. Let's simplify and value what we have. I have spent several days moving some of the files from this blog over to a new server. The page loads so much better now. I just might be starting something here! I am giving thought to posting more regularly... what do you think? I'll try if you do. This past week, I have valued what I have. I valued my good old tried and true Ballband pattern. OK, so I gave it a little twist. But I rather liked the way it turned out. This was knit by knitting each slipped stitch row offset by a single stitch. I think I'll have some more of these soon! There are rather addicting... What do you think? It is really eye-catching. But, of course, the Ballband always has been hasn't it? In every one of the bazillion color combinations I have seen and tried. You've gotta love it! Plus, no better time to knit for those precious gift aways. The Diagonal Ballband Dishcloth - a variation of the classic "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.     John 15:5 Oh Lord, let me abide in you, Let me cast my worries on you for you O Lord, long to carry them. May these days be blessed. ...

Colors and inspirations

* * *    Often times I am complimented on the color combinations that I use in my kitchen cloths. Many of you have commented on how cheerful, fun or playful some of my cloths are... Well, how DO I decide on colors? I will let you in on a little secret, but don't tell anyone or my reputation will be ruined. :) In actuality, I am a graphic designer and I love working with color. (Even though my wardrobe mostly consists of black!) But sometimes even I have difficulty in either deciding on or visualizing a color combination. This is what I do for inspiration when I am stumped... ...Think about something in your possession or that you have come across that you absolutely love. A piece of clothing that makes you feel like a million bucks or an upholstered piece of furniture you love to have in your room. Is there a fabric handbag that simply makes you smile? Perhaps you have passed a bolt at the fabric boutique that you adore but you don't know why. Chances are that the color combinations caught your attention. Sometimes those very colors can play a role in your attitude and can even reach out and inspire you!   The Log Cabin dishcloth and my tulip vase.   To create your next work, why not simply emulate the colors contained in your "favorite" whatever-it-was??? There is essentially no visualization involved, since the concrete color evidence is right there in front of your eyes. If it is not portable - simply snap a picture of it to capture the color essence. This is also a great way to try something a bit more trendy using contemporary color combinations. Home decorating, fashion, nature and even food combinations are fair game! Sometimes I target color combinations found when knitting from a particular variegated yarn. I pull two or three colors out that I love when knitted next to each other. Now sit back, reach from your stash and start painting with yarn. Be a Picasso. Here are a few of the inspirations that I have used recently: Multi-band dishcloth and my latest handbag.   One of my favorite coffee mugs and a Multi-band dishcloth.      I added a new venture to my knitting repertoire. Simple + Elegant + Functional = Winner! The Irish Hiking Scarf. The next logical step after learning cables from my latest KAL. I am enjoying this very much. Of course there is much more knitting involved - 62 or so inches, but a pattern that can easily be memorized. Thus far I have just about 14 inches accomplished. Some of the scarves that I have seen were so luxurious and beautiful that I simply was itching to try. Here is my knit-a-long for August using Bernat Organic Cotton in Olive: and here is my latest project, yes, The Irish Hiking Scarf which I simply consider to be an "extra long dishcloth." I am knitting two, but the pictured scarf is in Cotton Tots which is extra soft. Oh - and rumor has it that Hakucho is doing some great things for the environment. Take a look at this! And last but not least - here are a couple of photos of recent cloths that I knit using Sugar & Cream Pinky Stripes yarn. It was fun knitting these up but I think that after a time, this yarn would tend to make most cloths look the same. I must say that there were beautiful pinks! I wish that Lily would make the pastel pink that they use in this yarn as their soft pink. I was never a fan of the S&C Rose. The patterns that I used here are The Accidental Bobble Cloth and The Grid Pattern. Have a lovely day-into night and my wishes are that I may have inspired one of you in the tiniest way and not just in the area of knitting! Thank you for stopping in to take a peek at this little corner of my life. Sneak previews - Coming next: Baby care instruction tag   Coming soon: My blog contest - Prizes!   * * *

Again & again: Ballbands

One of my all-time favorite kitchen cloths has got to be the beloved Ballband cloth. I just love the colors, the texture and the over all appeal of this cloth. Perhaps it is simply that it looks so complicated and it is so easy to knit. Especially in the eyes of a non-knitter. In a way it is a well kept secret in the knitters bag of tricks. Here are my latest Ballband projects. I am knitting several of these as gifts for 20 something girls. One set as a birthday gift and a set of them for a wedding shower gift. The top photo below is simply my stash of cloths to choose from when the need for gift-giving arises.      It is not that I particularly enjoy knitting these because the color changes take a bit of extra time... especially if I use a wide variety of colors. But I can easily overlook that when I can enjoy the finished projects. I don't believe that I have ever knit the same color way twice. This truly is one of my favorite scrap-busting projects, although weaving in thirty or so ends is also time-consuming, it is well worth it.      What are your favorite "dishcloth recipes"? Why not post them to my flicker group? The link can be found on the lower left of this page. ...

Dishcloth Care Instruction - Hang Tag Template

God is good. We have been having such perfect days after many hot and humid ones - the air has cleared into something close to perfection. The breeze gently touches our skin, and we are reminded that our Creator is indeed present everywhere. I was reminded of this passage: "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8 Our summer is definitely in full gear. Bustling along even. I have to make an ongoing effort to simplify and slow things down. When we were little I can remember thinking that our long summer days lasted forever. Endless daylight hours lasting well past our bedtime. Now that we are old(er) and have the knowledge of when summer officially starts - on June 21st - our days then begin to shorten and as adults, our minds can be tricked into thinking that summer is nearing its end. I think that I like being naive to the calendar much more than being a slave to it. ... I promised to post the template for the dishcloth care instruction hang tag. This is a simple guide to creating them. Many of you will not need these steps written out - as I am sure that there are more than a few scrap bookers artists and computer experts out there, but here it is... I will be posting many more styles in the days and weeks to come, as well as other packaging ideas too. I would love to hear any of your ideas. There are lots of great wording variations - this is only a start. Supplies needed: Heavy weight card stock - 64 or 110lb. (White will feel crisp and clean, ivory will have a vintage or "earthy" feel, scissors or a paper cutter, small hole punch, corner trimmer (optional), hemp, ribbon or yarn strips of a coordinating color to tie on to your cloth. Step one: Print out page 1. Turn your page to appropriately feed your printer - and print page 2 on the back. Page 1 will have margins or guides where you will trim your tags while page 2 will be printed over most of the entire page. This allows room for error when you trim them. Step 2: After your pages are printed, trim on the borders on page one (this is the front of your tags). Use a scissors - or even better use a paper cutter. Start by trimming the complete outside border, then trim vertically into 3 strips. Lastly cut each tag apart individually. Step 3: After your tags are cut apart, punch the hole where the graphic is located. Step 4: If you desire you can cut the corners of these tags. Rounded corners give it a professional look! Step 5: Take a coordinating color of yarn, ribbon or hemp, double it up and thread it through the hole of your tag. Step 6: Voila! Attach it to your cloth and enjoy gifting it! *Download this file below Dishcloth Care Tag Page 1 Dishcloth Care Tag Page 2 Update: this is a very large file - You can right click: save as on your computer - OR - open each page individually in your browser. Since the file is large, your browser may take several moments to open this, depending on your connection. please let me know if you have any problems with this file. I will try to work with your special needs! ...

Hammock Days of Summer

Summer! What a wonderful week it has been - so much in contrast to our week of last, which was very cold and rainy. I do believe I could live and be perfectly content with these days all year long. Well, maybe it could rain a bit to keep things green... at night. I have said it before and I will say it for all of eternity... God is amazing! Well, wouldn't you say that it is about time that I finally finished my Vineyard Dishcloth Pattern? This probably took me six weeks! Although very pretty and quite simple, it somehow took the back burner for these last many weeks. I finally decided to finish up a few UFO's and this was one of them. As I finish a few cloths that I have ... I wonder... will I EVER graduate beyond dishcloth knitting? In my mind, I have given myself a year of dishcloths to perfect my tension and stitches and to find my favorite tools. Will my attention span be able to take a larger piece? I hope so! But I can definitely see why other knitters follow with sweet little baby things. Perfectly small sized and dainty stitches. Here is a photo of my now complete cloth. This dishcloth pattern can be found here and is entitled "Vignes". Remember, this site sometimes has high traffic and may not come up immediately - but keep trying! Here is a tag that I designed to attach to my gifted cloths. It gives simple care instructions and adds a bit of charm to a gift as well. I will be posting this style tag and a few others for you to download if you should need to. A few knitters have inquired as to where they could be found  - so now you have it! These can be printed front and back, cut with your paper cutter or scissors and rounded with your corner die cut stamp. If you have any input or ideas - I would love to hear them. Is this at all useful for you? Now I know that I promised to post my Alpha Stripe Dishcloth Pattern. I am so sorry that it is not here as of yet...but look for that within the next day or two at the very most. I simply have not had a large enough space of time to finish that project. I encountered a large problem with my beloved Illustrator program and I am trying to work around it. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to read my pages. ~  :  ~ Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many that go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 17:13-15 ...