Knitted Longies

Now that we've had a shift in weather towards cooler than sweltering, I'm thinking about our warm clothes wardrobe.  And we need some longies.  Woolen pants to wear over a diaper.  Once lanolized, they are not exactly waterproof, but water doesn't get through them, since one of the coolest things about wool is the amount of water it can hold before feeling wet.  And water is the least of our worries, right, folks?

Method:
For these I started out by casting on 108 stitches using the cable cast-on method.  This is pretty much where my technicality withers into a mishmash of knowing what I'm doing and guesswork, so if you were thinking you could follow this pattern mindlessly, you can think again.  If however you don't have any interest in knitting jargon, you can go ahead and skip to the pictures.  Then I made ribbing (K2P2) for some number of rows that felt right.  Then went back to regular knitting for a while, then decided to do a row of purling on the knit side, which is how I got that thin stripe.  Then maybe 3 rows of knitting, then I started the moss or seed stitch, which is just offset purls and knits so they make a tile pattern.  Then I kept on knitting for a bit until I felt the need for more thin stripes, and continued until the length of the piece I had seemed sufficiently long.  I based this length off our current (boughten) wool soaker.  I made a gusset as shown in this pattern.  It went okay, but probably not as well as it might have if I knew what the heck I was doing.  I might have already made the rise too tall, so I cut the gusset a bit shorter than I might have.  Probably not the wisest decision.  Then I began the legs by dividing the row in half, inserting a lifeline to hold the half I wasn't currently working on, transferring the half I was working on onto double pointed needles and working in the round down to the bottom cuff, which was more K2P2 ribbing.  I cast off, went back and did the other leg.  

Things I discovered while doing this project: 
While looking up how to do a stretchy cast on and seed stitch, I found out that there are two kinds of knitting: Continental style in which the yarn leading to the ball is held taut in your left hand, and English style, in which the yarn is held taut in your right hand.  Due to the mechanics of this and how you have to switch your yarn from front to back to change between knitting and purling, ribbing goes a lot faster if you are using the Continental method, though it is less forgiving of correct tension than English.  What I found out about myself was that in my prior ignorance, I had already been doing Continental purling, and English knitting, to balance the work between my hands for their relief.  It took a while but I taught myself how to knit from the Continental side so I could do this speedy ribbing (or seed stitch).  I still switch back to English knitting if I'm doing a whole row.  Now I'm getting the hang of the Continental, and really prefer it. 


The results:
 

Knit longies.

Now I've seen them on, I am super pleased with the way they came out, and the rise height and leg length are just right.  

A trial run.

 

Winter Hat

Crocheted a winter hat for the kiddo over the past couple of days.  Worked most of it in the round, crocheting into the back loop only, then back and forth to make the back a little longer and add earflaps.  Went around the rim with a dark blue yarn to smooth off the edges and create braided ties. 

Baby Pants Alterations

An bit of a tutorial to help you alter store-bought pants to fit over cloth diapers:

You'll need: 

-baby pants.  make sure they are the length you need and have sufficient stretch in the waistband. 

-matching fabric (or not, as suits your fancy)

-scissors

-needle & thread or machine.  

Steps: 

1.   Cut down the back seam of the pants, from the crotch (is that the best word there is?) to the belt loop if there is one, or the yoke or a reasonable stopping point so long as it doesn't interfere with the waistband.  I cut on either side of the seam, removing it entirely so that I could have less bulk in my own seams.  Additionally, I cut about a half inch out of the top of the inseams. 

1.  Cut along seams at center back and inseam, like so.

2.  Carefully, put the pants on the kiddo in question.  Let him crawl and stretch and basically move in his usual way.  The biggest problem for us with these trim-looking baby pants is that over the cloth diaper they keep him from moving his legs smoothly while crawling, and they pull down the diaper.  Neither good.  So a main goal of mine for this project was smooth crawling.  Most of the area of the pants that needed expansion was in the rump, with just a bit in the crotch to make it wider. 

2, 3, 4.  Couldn't get a pic in use, but the gaping was a little like this.

3.  Look/measure/estimate at the amount of gaping that occurs while the kiddo is wearing the pants.  I got a general idea of the shape of the gape and measured it at its widest point using my finger.  If you can find your tape measure, feel free to do it the proper way.  I figured on a tiny bit of extra ease anyway, so didn't want to spend a lot of time measuring.

4.  Carefully take the pants back off again.  

5.  Cut out your second fabric to a bit larger than the hole including seam allowance.  

6.  Pin the fabric to the pants.  I found the easiest way for me was to tuck under the raw edges of the fabric, and pin it from the outside, so both right sides were showing on the outside, as if I were doing an applique.  I added a pleat going in either direction at the bottom, where the back panel joins the inseam, so that there could be sufficient expansion in that area as well. 

7.  Added fabric basted on.

7.  View of the pleat at the inseam.

7.   Sew the fabric to the pants.  I basted it on by hand for a trial run on the kiddo, with the intention of sewing it more securely by machine at a later point. 

8.  Press, if you're so inclined.  Finish seams if that makes you happy.  

This was incredibly quick as projects go, took me about an hour, and that was with me sewing by hand.  The results have been excellent--Chubber can crawl freely, and seems more comfortable wearing pants while being carried in the Ergo.  Pants that have back pockets may look a little silly, since the pockets get pushed off to the sides. 

Hope this helps someone out there in a similar pickle! 

Tangiential Crocheting

My Aunt has a cool new set of patterns out for crochet finger puppets in a sort of Halloween theme.  I have so far made the mummy and the one-eyed creature.  The mummy was super easy, and with my natural colored wool, it has a sufficiently decayed-bandage look.  I thought about leaving the tail of yarn untucked for an unravelled vibe, but could see that being chewed off in a matter of no time. You'll have to excuse her liberal lipstick application: being tightly wrapped and in a dark tomb for thousands of years, she has gotten a little out of practice.

Mummy

Bolstered by the success of my mummy wrapping, I set out to make the monster, but apparently I don't actually know how to crochet (which I don't think surprises anyone).  Anyway, my attempt at a triple crochet caused the round to increase, and I decided it looked more like a set of sepals on a fruit.  Then of course I had to make the tomato that went with the sepals.  At which point I realized the sepals looked most like they belonged to an eggplant.  Good thing I just happen to have purple yarn, huh?  I made skinnier sepals for the tomato, and an eggplant body for the original sepals. When I made the tomato I just decreased by skipping a loop, but fortunately before I made the eggplant I saw instructions for invisible decrease.  I'm not sure I did it right, because you can see a spiral along the eggplant's neck, but at least there aren't gaping holes.

Eggplant and Tomato

Then I figured out where I went awry with the triple crochet and made a better lumpy monster.  I don't have plain white and black yarn, so instead I used embroidery thread, and gave him 3 eyes to keep the scale true.  He says "hi!" for he is a friendlier monster than the mummy gal.

Bumpy Monster

 

Fall Garden

A while back, I put some sprouting potatoes in the ground.   A bit later I planted an onion which was sprouting, and then a sweet potato.  I didn't really have much hope for any of it to grow, but I figured it was that or over the wall to the compost area.  Who knows if they'll be ready before it gets too cold, but it was worth a shot.

There are also peppers growing that I started in May from seed, and tomatoes from around the same time.  Apparently the peppers wouldn't even start flowering until the weather cooled down, and it seems like the tomatoes were thinking along the same lines. 

Well, here's how it's looking today: 

Potato Buds

Sweet Potato

Tomato Flowers

Young Tomato

Peppers

Keep Tie-dye Weird

Ugh, how I hate the word.  Tie-dye.  It makes me think of hideous too-bright rainbow swirls and "Keep Austin Weird" emblazoned on an ill-fitting touristy t-shirt.  It's become so mainstream that nothing about them screams particularly weird.  Shops and even other places have assimilated the design into their cultures, and now they're everywhere you look, from football games to truck stops.

But why should I let that make me hate the word tie-dye?  I like some tie dye, and it is as succinct and accurate a description of the process as you could imagine.  You tie something up, then you dye it.  Easy.  Depending on how you tie and how much dye you use and where you put it, you can get infinite variations.  You don't have to use the rainbow swirl, you can make bunch of brown wavy pleats if you so choose.  And the process is fun.  

I've always enjoyed the process more than wearing the finished project, although way back in middle school I made a bandana with these cool dyed strings, so instead of using the strings as resist, they were making the color. At the time, wearing a headscarf was all the rage, so I wore my bandana to school alot.  I even got called to the office for my "gang symbol".  Right.  The gang of hippie tie-dyer kids.  Who regularly got smashed against lockers on our way to ACE classes, or art class, or maybe woodwind rehearsal.  There may even have been some of us in the Extreme Reading elective.  But I'm not sure, since we were merely a loosely formed band of kiddos who were concerned about whether or not we might get caught in the crossfire of a saloon brawl at lunch.  That being said, we were a huge threat to all the even titchier or even dweebier kids, mostly due to our prayers that the thugs would beat them up instead.  I still have that now-faded bandana. 

But I digress.  My point is actually how much I love dyeing things.  Resist-dyeing things.  

Yesterday, I dyed these diapers for my "more diaper mods" project.  My intention was to end up with one color on the inside of the circle and another for the background. 

  

 

My first attempt at dripping dye into the tufts created by the ties was a catastrophe.  The dye got everywhere, including my hands.  I had also tied some big tufts with rubber bands just to see.

 

The next attempt, I was trying to dye the entire thing first and then color the tufts.  It still didn't work well, so I just aimed for a more even dye all over.

For this piece, I wanted more white in the background since I could tell the blue had mixed up pretty dark.  So I crumpled up the cloth in the plastic bag it would sit in, and splashed dye over the top without worrying about getting much on the bottom.

By the time I got to the last piece I had a technique that seemed to work.  I put the green dye in a plate and dipped the tufts into it.  They were close together so it was hard to get them individually but they were also different lengths so I couldn't get them all in at once.  I had to do a couple at a time, which was more time consuming than I'd like without being as neat as I really wanted.  I then overdyed it all blue.   

I like how they all came out, these weird tie-dyes. 

More Diaper Mods

Flats are no longer doing it for me.  They are great in the early days, but getting them folded to just the right length and putting them into the cover just so, and getting it on a baby who is desperately trying to get away... I'm over it.  So my flats need a new purpose.  A diapering purpose so that I don't need to buy any more diapers.  

Initially this project was an attempt to make my flats into fitteds.  But the elastic gathering in the legs was really a hassle.  I made a lovely casing, but it was just too bulky to really snug up with elastic.  Look, it's terrible, right?  We can either blame the number of layers of fabric or the burnt-out-ness of the elastic--I salvaged it from an old, ill-fitting item of clothing.  At least I didn't waste new elastic on this endeavor.

Gathering is not occurring.

So I think I will sidle over into slightly different territory and not worry about the elasticated legs, but make this more like a contour diaper.  We'll see how that works instead.  

I may even try to make different thicknesses of diapers, (maybe somehow labelled with different colored threads to discern which is which) so that they can serve different purposes.  Another twist I'm planning is to dye the outer layer of the diaper (but not the inner) before sewing it for colorful coverless times.

Here's the prototype in the testing stage.  I already have a few modifications planned to make the fit around the legs better. 

Diaper Tabs

What do you do when you have a baby who's too rotund for size large prefolds?  Add tabs!  

For the prototype for the tabbed diapers, I used some old blue plaid flannel.  There wasn't a long enough strip to go entirely across the back of the diaper, so I split it in the middle.  Also I was being cheap thrifty and trying to use up some yellow and green thread that I have too much of.  Yeah, you can really tell this was a first attempt.

The prototype.

For the next set of tabs I opted to use 2 birdseye flats, each cut into thirds, sewn into tubes and then sewn across the top edge of the back of the diaper.  Not only is this spiffier looking, but it gives me the advantage of an extra inch or so of diaper length.  Why take measures to extend width-wise and neglect length, right?  These diapers are definitely a step up from the flannel prototype.  I decided that plain old birdseye just wasn't cool enough, so I dyed them with the Ice dyeing method.

Some of the ice-dyed tabs.

In use.

That worked out so well that I decided to dye another couple of flats to make more tabs.  For these I tried out shibori.  They kinda look like the patterns on the bottom of a pool. 

Shibori tabs.

An additional, unlooked-for advantage of these tabs is that they're considerably easier to get pins through, since they're just two layers of a looser weave.  The advantage of pins over snappis is that pins actually manage to hold the diaper on a mobile baby if you're not using a cover.  Leaving your pins stuck in a bar of soap is a good way to keep them sliding through the diaper easily.  Hmmm...that gives me an idea for another project!  

Baby Moccasins

Here's what I made yesterday.  Once I actually buckled down to do it, this project was fairly fast.  Well it took all day; it wasn't a super concentrated effort, but it all got done in one day.   Might have been even faster had I not done everything 100% by hand.  Could've saved a few minutes by machine stitching the layers of fabric together, but I decided re-threading the machine and winding the bobbin for such a small project was not worth the hassle for me.

 

Soles are of leather from Tandy's remnant pile.  They are stitched to the upper by waxed linen thread, which is, unfortunately, white, due to a serious lack of options around here..  Vamps and heel quarters are made from a double layer of brown bottomweight twill.  Green embroidery thread topstitching for some interest as well as to hold the double layer of fabric together.  Hook and loop closures on both sides of the foot for adjustability and ease of use. I had been imagining snaps, but then I imagined how hard that would be to fit and secure, so I changed my mind about snaps on shoes.

(Ignore the too-small, non-matching pants.)

I think they meet his approval.  Hopefully they'll fit for more than a week, since walking isn't quite on our agenda.  But when it is, I won't have to worry about the hot, sharp ground.  Breathe a sigh of relief. 

Lap Shoulder Shirt

This project is just the beginning for making kid clothes. I basically followed this excellent tutorial over at Made.  And when I say "followed", I really mean skimmed the directions to get the gist then wing it like I usually do.

An old black t-shirt hanging around that I never wear, because black just doesn't feel right on me was just begging to be repurposed.  Yet more remnants of the blue plaid flannel that makes its appearance all too often were also crying out to be used up for goodness sakes.  I wanted to make a t-shirt for F that was longer than his current shirts, since he's got such a long torso.  So I traced a onesie that fits, and made sure the length was extra.  I took advantage of the existing hem and one side seam of the shirt, leaving them intact.  I also kept the sleeve hems for use as sleeves on the little shirt.  After cutting out the pieces, I sorta fudged some bias tape for the collar, instead of the ribbing she suggests.  The flannel is quite stretchy which is precisely why it didn't get used for its original purpose in the first place.  I didn't bother with the ironing board so the tape isn't the straightest or beautifullest.  Since this was an experiment in unknown territory (machine sewing knits), I didn't want to waste too much energy, time, or materials.  I sewed the bias tape all wobbly along the collar line, then sewed up the side seam, and then the sleeves onto the armholes.  Maybe there is a better order to follow so you don't stretch out the sleeves going around the machine's free arm or whatever that's called.  (Can't you tell I'm a super technical sewist?  You'll laugh when you hear I've been omitting a step on threading my machine for 10 years now.  Clearly it's not critical.)  And that was it for this super simple garment...  I'll do better next time, hopefully.  

The sleeves are actually an all right size, but the shirt is a little wider than intended.  It is incredibly easy to get over his head, and really, isn't that all that matters?

Shibori

I've been playing around with lots of dyeing methods lately.  Ultimately this dye project will become more diaper tabs.  So I have sacrificed two birdseye flats as the next dye victims.

Shibori around xeriscaping.

We have a lot of rocks around here, so I figured it would be cool to try a couple of different methods of shibori.  One is called kanoko shibori (at least I think that's what I did, though honestly the name's not so important), which is basically the same as tie-dye you think of with all the colors.  I chose to put rubberbands around the rock pouches to create a pebbly effect.  Then I ran out of rubberbands and just decided to tie with string in small tufts.  This sounds tedious, but is actually somewhat relaxing.

Shibori around olive oil bottle.

For this iteration, I have done the tieing in the arashi shibori method.  Arashi means "storm" and by wrapping the cloth around something on the diagonal, it creates the effect of a driving rain.  I wrapped rubber bands around the top and bottom to keep the fabric from slipping right off the ends, and the string for the real resist ties.

Rub-a-dub-dub.

Here they are in the dyebath.  Traditionally, I believe this is done in indigo, and maybe one day I'll do indigo dyeing, but right now, just plain ole' Procion Mx dyes are the ones for me.  I''m using Dharma's Royal Blue.

 

Here is the rock part un-banded, with the string ties still tied.  
 

 

The rock and string fabric, untied and rinsed of excess dye and soda ash.  I like the way it came out.

Here is the arashi, untied and rinsed.  It came out a little wonky, not so much like rain as like a waterfall.  Next time, a taller thing to wrap around would probably be better.  

So I guess they came out well for a first try, we'll see once they are fully washed in hot water.  I guess they probably won't look as cool once they're cut into strips, but you better believe they'll still be the coolest diapers around.

Update: a lot of the dye came out in the hot wash, so the blue is less vivid, now. 

Ice Dyeing

When I saw instructions for this technique, what with it being a zillion degrees outside, and us often having ice leftover in our cooler from getting groceries, it seemed like something I had to try.

After prewashing fabric to remove sizing, oils, etc., I soaked the fabric in soda ash solution.  Next, I crumpled it up (soda ash is caustic, so wear gloves) on top of a coke bottle tray which is upside-down in my trusty large plastic bucket.  This is because I didn't want all the dye water to become murky once the ice melts.  Then, I added ice cubes on top of the fabric.  After that, I sprinkled dye powder on top of the ice cubes.  (Wearing a mask and gloves, because dye powder isn't all that good for you either).  I covered the bucket with its lid to keep the water from evaporating, and bugs from getting in.

Then, wait for the ice to melt.  So, like 15 minutes here...  I waited a few hours to allow the dye to really react with the fabric since I wanted really bright, intense colors that didn't just wash out in the first rinse.  When I came back, it looked like this: 

The yellows didn't seem to be swept away by the ice melting.  And some of that powder that looks yellow is actually green.  

Rinse out excess dye and soda ash with cool water, then wash on hot with soap until rinsewater runs clear.  

Now, for the results.  (Except not the stuff I dyed above, I actually don't have pictures of those, yet).  A random bit of muslin that I felt needed sprucing up, and a half dozen diaper tabs:

Ice-dyed muslin.

Diaper tabs-to-be.

Ombré Dyeing

Ombré dyeing is a way to create a gradient effect, and for this project, I am doing a couple of babywearing wraps.  The wraps are 100% linen at roughly 29" wide, with one wrap at about 3.5 yds long and the other at  75" long.  The short one is destined to be a ring sling.

The setup for the dye process.  I have the cloth clipped to hangers by clothespins, or on hangers with clips.  They are arranged so the long strip of cloth is zigzagging back and forth between hangers.  I have them hanging from the support struts on my tripod, with the tripod set on top of various buckets to get some extra height.  At each darker layer, I will raise the legs of the tripod to pull the cloth out of the dyebath.  The next step was to add almost but not quite 3 gallons of water (because I estimated I had 1 lb fabric, since I was only dyeing halfway up each), and a canister of non-iodized salt.  The salt just drives the dye from the water, and helps with evenness.  Soda ash is what actually causes the dye to react with the cloth and fixes it to permanence. 

 

Here's the cloth in the least concentrated dyebath (left) and most concentrated (right).  As I went, I added more dye to the bath while pulling the cloth out a bit, which created a darker color for each layer.  The amount of dye you add to each layer should double the concentration of the dyebath.  So for 5 layers, I premixed 2c. cool water with 5t dye (Dharma's Royal Blue).  For the first dye layer I used 1/4 c. mixed into the water and salt.  The next layer I added another 1/4 c.  For the next layer, I added 1/2 c. bringing the total dye mixture to 1 c.  For the final layer I added 1 c. dye mix to use up my dye.  At each step I added some soda ash premixed with more water.  My total water content was 3 gallons, all told, as well as the 1/3 c. soda ash, 5t dye, 1 canister salt.  

  

Royal Blue and Aquamarine

Above is the finished result, on the longer fabric, which I had previously gradation dyed with Jacquard's Aquamarine.  It is more of a Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip than what I expected aquamarine to look like, but that's ok,  I like it with the blue.

If I were to do this exact same project again, I would have left out one teaspoon of dye, since the 4th and 5th layers are essentially the same color.   Though I love the depth of the color, I was hoping for a slightly slower fade.  Also, I would not have dyed two cloths in the same bath, or at least not in that particular space.  It was very difficult to move the fabric out of the way enough to pour in more dye and soda ash without touching them to each other, or dripping and spreading dye onto the parts that were supposed to remain white.  I ended up accidentally splashing some of the darker dye while pouring it in, which is how I got those dark spots.  I would be upset if this were for someone else, but since it's just for me, I like the character the spots and irregularities add.