Sweater Stockings

I realized this year we only had three stockings. I thought for sure I had four, but it turns out not. I had lofty visions of patchwork stockings using this really pretty fabric that was my grandmother's. But, that's really not the kind of project you take on a week before Christmas.

Sweater stockings, on the other hand, are a great last minute project! These were so easy, and I thought I was brilliant for thinking of it - until I saw it on Martha Stewart. Ah well.

I had hoped to find some Bridget Jones style sweaters with intarsia reindeer, but Goodwill was lacking in last minute Christmas sweaters. I did find an XL cabled sweater, and a fair isle snowflake sweater. I was able to get 2 stockings from each one. It took longer to cut them out than it did to sew them. I just scissor-traced (yeah, I just made that up) around an old stocking. I used the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater for the cuff so, there was no hemming or anything, just sewed around the edges and added a yarn loop for hanging.

Pulled Candy

John and I have a little saying that helps us keep our life simple: "What would Pa Ingalls do?"

Okay, since neither of us have read the Little House on the Prairie books (although we totally plan to), I must confess that when we ask this, we picture Michael Landon and his big friendly smile.

But still. It's a good way to remind us that just a few generations ago, people lived much simpler lives. They grew and canned their own food, they made their own soap, they lived in very cute small houses with a loft. And they made their own candy.

So, my sweet tooth and I decided to get in touch with the simple life and make some pulled maple syrup candy from this really cool book my sister gave me. It's full of interesting history about America and food and the Ingalls' experiences. My candy turned out pretty good, even though I didn't do it quite right. But I'm sure Karen Grassle messed up a time or two as well. I plan to try again in the near future.

Here's the fonz, letting me know the candy is ready to be pulled. Now that's something Pa Ingalls didn't have.

Of Frizzy Hair and Headbands

I got my hair cut last week. I'm kind of cyclical about my hair - I grow it long, then cut it really short, then grow it out again. I've never been one to keep up a hairstyle for very long. Fortunately, my hair grows fast, so it's kind of fun for me.

Anyway, when I have short hair my thoughts turn to frizz control and headbands. A few things:

1. Turns out bias tape makes really great headbands. I have a bunch of skinny tape I made a few years ago (that I don't really need) and it has a little stretch so it's really perfect for a quick tie on headband. Just cut and tie.

2. I also got this great hair pin from Once Upon a Wire. I forgot I bought it, and then when it came in the mail wrapped so pretty - it was a delight to open. A little gift to me! I love these vintage enamel flowers.

3. I have three new natural frizz control methods that are working great! Well, I started doing all three at the same time, so it's hard to say which ones are making the biggest difference, but here they are: a. I wash with whatever shampoo/baking soda I'm currently using, but I always rinse with a water/apple cider vinegar/lemon juice mix - the vinegar helps rinse the hair clean, and the lemon juice closes the pores (no, that's not right - follicles?). b. I don't even touch the towel to my head. I just squeeze it dry, then blow dry a little, and air dry the rest. c. I blow dry with cool air. I never considered doing this before, but it keeps those follicle things closed.

That's it. No more hair styling tips from me any time soon, I promise.

Air Fresheners

Our little house doesn't have air conditioning, so we have some areas of the house that get stuffy easily - especially in the summer. So, I bought a bunch of baking soda last week to place around the house.

I thought I would pour some in my vases and other pretties sitting around, but then I had the idea to put it in canning jars. I used a little square of fabric with the metal band and left the lid off so that it is breathable. An occasional shake will stir up fresh soda, so you don't need to stir. Makes a fun way to use pretty jars and fabric.

I'm sure people have been doing this forever, but I felt pretty clever for thinking of it.

Easter Eggs

I tried the natural easter egg dyes this year via Martha Stewart. I kind of just did it myself, since L is still small, and I wanted to let the sit overnight. But John and L both enjoyed peeking in on the process. The colors were so rich, and the process was fun and easy. I tried red cabbage for blue, and turmeric for yellow. I put mine in jars because I didn't do a lot of eggs, and so it was a little more efficient to cover the eggs this way than in a wide bowl. Also, I mixed a little of the two dyes together to try a green - which turned out great, even though the dye looked pretty muddy.

Reusable Snack Bag Tutorial

I'm trying to clear out a cabinet to make room for the new little one's clothes - and that means finally getting rid of some excess fabric.  I decided to make these simple little snack bags, which make a nice alternative to disposable bags.  (Updated 7/24/2011:   This pattern is for a lined bag. If you want a bag with no lining, just hem the short edges, then follow the instructions from step 4 on.)

I thought it would be super easy, just like a zipper pouch or something. But it took me an afternoon of reassembling the pieces to figure out an easy way to put them together than didn't require any complicated turning or handstitching. I finally figured out what I thought must be the simplest method of putting them together, and put together a little tutorial for you. It really is easy, it's just easier when someone else maps it out for you! Instructions are below.

Materials
scrap sizes of fabric
equal size piece liner fabric
hook and loop tape
scissors, thread, pins
sewing machine


Instructions





These instructions are for a lined snack bag. If you want to make a bag without a liner, just hem the short edges, then follow the instructions from step 4 on.
Instructions
1. Cut your two different fabric scraps into two equally sized rectangles. You may use a ziplock bag as a reference, or just whatever size your scrap will allow. Make sure the rectangle is twice as long as the bag because you will be folding it in half.
2. Right sides facing, sew a short end of the rectangles together. Repeat this with the opposite end.
3. Now turn the rectangles right side out. Iron the seams flat.
4. Cut a length of hook and loop tape about 1/2” shorter than the seam. Then, position the hook tape centered just below the seam on the inside of your bag and topstitch in place around the edges of your tape. Repeat this with the loop tape on the opposite end.
5. Fold the rectangle in half, with the inside (the side with the hook and loop tape) out. Line up your top seams and pin in place.
6. Stitch down both sides of the rectangle with a 1/4” seam allowance, and neatly trim any threads or rough edges.
7. Turn the bag right side out, closing the hook and loop tape. If you don’t care about raw edges, you could stop here. Or take it one step farther and top stitch down both sides, encasing the raw edges inside this new seam.
 
Ta da! Easy peasy!
 
Feel free to sell items made from this pattern, but please share a link back to me!




Made some? I'd love to see! Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.

pretty glasses

After learning about the BPA drama a while back and again recently, John and I have been looking for ways to reduce BPA in our food. It seems like a generally good idea to limit our use of plastic in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, Plastics Make it Possible, I just don't want to eat it.


As we transition out of plastic, I wanted to share some of my favorite things:
The glass jar with the cranberries is a regular canning jar, but mom gave me this cool plastic lid that makes reusing the jar super convenient (as long as the food isn't touching the lid, it doesn't leach). The yellow and blue jars also have plastic lids. This was a splurge at an antique store this summer - they are oleo containers from the 50's. Man, I wish my groceries came in cool containers like this. Everything is either disposable or overly branded now. Seriously, Pillsbury (or whoever), I'd buy your flour if it came in a fabric sack.

I thought the large glass jar would make a pretty cookie jar (or wheat rolls, whatever). We've been collecting an assortment of vintage glasses with lovely designs. We eat a lot of canned tomatoes (the cans are lined with a substance containing BPA, too), so I canned some myself this summer - although not nearly enough unfortunately. And we picked up a klean kanteen for L.

Knit a Market Bag

The market bag I made on my trip turned out so well, I decided to share the pattern (below). I started with the pattern from purl bee, but I wanted something with a heftier handle, and a little more shape. As usual, I just sort of made it up as I went, but unusually - it turned out well!

When I first finished it, I was afraid I'd made it too small, and gathered too much so that the opening was too small. I had yet to realize how much this little bag would stretch. It turns out it's perfect.

Here it is , stuffed full of groceries on my kitchen counter.

I unsuccessfully tried to hold it up and take a picture. It was pretty heavy. It will hold a lot more than a plastic grocery bag. This picture shows the bag with all the stuff that was in it: 4 can goods, a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of sesame oil, a lemonade canister, a bag of beans, jar of peanut butter, coffee can, cornbread mix, and a small canister of sea salt.

Here's a close up of those handles I'm so proud of. I think the gather looks really cool. You can also see the little antique pin of a cuckoo clock I got on our vacation. Lovely.



If you like a little flexibility in your knitting, then this is a good pattern for you. I was so excited to see how it turned out, I could hardly put it down. this is the first knitting pattern I've ever written out to share, so let me know if anything doesn't make sense.

Market Bag Pattern

what I used:
5 oz (145 g) of 100% cotton yarn, 4 ply
size 10 knitting needles
size 10 (J) crochet hook
size 6 circular needles (I used these for the straight part and the circular part)

1.)The Bag

knit a lace rectangle that is 8" x 24". This is where the variation comes in - you could do this with a variety of lace patterns and needles. This is what I did:

using size 10 needles, cast on 35 sts (this lace pattern requires an odd number of stitches, if you use a different size needle, use however many stitches makes 8", but make sure it's an odd number). This will be the top front of the bag.

pattern from purl bee:
Row 1 and 3: purl
Row 2: k1, *yo, k2 tog, repeat from * to end of row
Row 4: *ssk, yo, repeat from * to end of row, k1

follow this pattern until your pieces measures about 24", bind off.

2.) The seams

fold your rectangle in half so that it measures 8" by 12".
beginning about 1.5" down the side, sew the side seam closed (leaving the top 1.5" open) with a crochet hook:

start with 1 loop on hook, go through top seam stitch on front of bag and the top seam stitch on back of bag, pull yarn though (now you have 2 loops on your hook), pull yarn through these two loops so you have 1 loop on your hook. Go down the side seam, repeating this until you have closed the side of the bag. leave a tail a couple of inches long, and weave in. Repeat for the other side seam.

3.) The gather

using size 6 needles, pick up 18 sts on the top front. (You are now "gathering" by only picking up every other stitch, so your number of stitches here will be half as many as you originally cast on. You will need an even number of stitches for the pattern.)

Work in seed stitch (*k1, p1, repeat from * to end of row) for 8 rows. bind off.

Repeat this on the top back of the bag.

4.) The handles

Using size 6 circular needles, starting at the far right side of the top front of the bag, pick up stitches in the open part of the seam (which now includes the 8 rows of seed stitch on both sides). You will pick up sts first going down the open part of the front side seam and then coming up the back side seam. I picked up about 1 st per row, but I picked up two stitches per row where the seams met. You should have something like 32 stitches on your needles.

Now cast on 36 stitches (or twice as many as you picked up in step 3, If you want longer handles, increase this number to 72).

Now pick up approximately 32 sts in the open part of the opposite seam in the same manner as the first.

Cast on 36 stitches (or twice as many as you picked up in step 3, If you want longer handles, increase this number to 72).

Join. (It's okay if your number of stitches varies, especially if you've used a different size needle. Just make sure you have an even number of stitches on your needle for the pattern) Work in seed stitch for 8 rows. bind off. Weave in any ends still sticking out - and you're done.

Made one? Add it to the wewilsons pattern pool.

Cloth Diapering

Tara and I were talking about cloth diapering this weekend, and she had heard that cloth and disposables end up evening out in terms of both cost and environmental affects. This is also what I found in an unbiased article called The Diaper Decision from Ohio State University (worth the read). Most of the cloth diapering websites have articles that debate the issue; however, they are usually fairly one-sided and don't used the same quality of resources that the OSU article did. (See for example, The Diaper Drama by Heather Sanders.) I really appreciated the OSU article, but it did not address all the various aspects of the issue as thoroughly as I would have liked.

Having to choose between the lesser of two evils has never set well with me. So, I thought I would briefly share why I think cloth diapering is best for my circumstances, in other words:

What I'm Doing in Addition to Cloth Diapering to Tip the Scales

The Environment
Disposables cause pollution in manufacturing and are adding to the problem of overfilled landfills. There is also the possibility of the human waste leaking into the ground and polluting the water supply (humorously, it is actually illegal to dispose of human waste in the trash, but I don't know anyone who has ever done anything else with the poop in the baby's diaper). Cloth diapers use more energy to wash and put more phosphates in our water supply by the use of detergents.

This feels like an easy one for me because I have been using phosphate free laundry soap for the last year. I am not using the soap I make at home because I think I read somewhere that the washing soda can irritate baby's skin (I forget where), but Dreft is also phosphate free. In addition, I try to hang out my clothes to dry (at least in the summer), and this is helpful for cloth diapers anyway because the sun bleaches out stains.

Money
This is a big one for me. I won't attempt to tell you how much money both options cost, but I will point out that the two articles came up with very different costs for both, and they are both outdated. Since diapers and wipes are the only expense for disposables, that seems pretty important, but I really don't know.

When factoring cost for the cloth diapers, on the other hand, you have to consider the water and electric bill, the cost of laundry soap, the wear and tear on your washer and drying, and the initial investment of the diapers.

I feel like I have an advantage here. First, we live on a well so we have no water bill. We hang clothes out to dry at least 50% of the time, and that helps with the electric bill. Dreft is more expensive soap, but I save money on our regular soap, so that kind of evens out. We rent, so we never paid for our appliances in the first place. And finally, I have saved money on the cloth diapers by making them myself, using "repurposed" flannel, and getting hand-me-downs from a friend. Right now I have about all the diapers, covers, and cloth wipes I need in the newborn and small sizes for no more than $100. And of course, the savings increase if I reuse these with subsequent children.

Other
You can find lots of other benefits on the cloth diapering websites. Most of which I just don't know enough about now.

The Diaper Drama claims health risks with disposables due to chemicals in the diapers that are linked to toxic shock syndrome in tampons, carcinogens, and sterility in boys. This was not addressed at all in the OSU article, and I haven't investigated the validity of these claims.

Other sites argue that cloth diapering makes potty training easier later on because babies are allowed to experience the wetness whereas disposably-diapered babies never experience the cause and effct. Again, I don't know if this is true.

Most people immediately think that the inconvenience would be too much, though most websites say you are supposed to change disposables every time a child wets, just like cloth, it's just that most people don't. Also, my friend Julie says the laundering really isn't a big deal once you develop a system. I'll have to weigh in on this later.

Make a non-toxic home cleaning kit

I decided to accept Josh's poo poo attitude as a challenge to do more.

While I dislike the attitude we've developed of constantly buying things and then throwing them away, I accept that giving up some disposable products may not be the only way, or the best way, to reduce waste (though I do contend it's a good start).

I found this interesting site produced by the Minnesota office of Environmental Assistance which offers suggestions on reducing waste in your home. They also have a page for reducing waste at the office, school, during the holidays, etc.

As Josh pointed out, one way I haven't begun to consider waste is the chemicals I use. Though John and I do enjoy some Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products (which are eco-friendly and smell good too) that we received as a wedding gift, for the most part we just use what's on sale.

So Minnesota is offering suggestions for a non-toxic home cleaning kit, involving products seen here: Baking soda , Vinegar , Plant-based detergents , Vegetable oil with lemon juice. I would also like to add that they suggest using cloth rags rather than disposable "bleached" towels.

They also suggest, specifically for laundry:
"Instead of more complicated detergents, try using a combination of washing soda and borax in your machine. These are usually as effective as more complex formulas and are also usually cheaper."