My World This Week

Hello knitters! I hope you’ve all been as happily busy as I have been. We’ve just finished up two weeks plus of our New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the whole city feels like it’s taking a nap. Because we had such a late Mardi Gras and thereby Easter, everything just got jammed up. Easter fell into the lap of French Quarter Fest and then Jazz Fest and it takes a minute to recover. So here we are.

Tracey and Shawn visited from Toronto this fest and it was such a happy time! It’s always glorious to show off your city and play tourist in your own town. We had lovely walks, drank absinthe in the French Quarter and ate lots and lots of crawfish.

In spite of all the fun and games, food and sun, friends and cocktails, I’ve been doing a lot of knitting! There are a couple of ideas that have been floating around my head that I’ve begun to develop over the past couple of weeks.

Dottie Blanket

I’ve long been intrigued by sock scrap blankets. I love seeing how people use those left over niggly bits of sock yarn to create something beautiful that is packed with knitting memories. I’ve had an idea in mind for my own scrappy blanket block and, after a bit of tweaking and frogging, have come up with a recipe that seems to work.

These blocks begin as octagons, then bloom into hexagons. Bits of sock yarn form the central “dot” while a neutral border creates a unity of appearance. Stitches are held on waste yarn so that they can be joined by a three-needle bind off eliminating any need to sew. The magic is in the blocking, as the little octagons must be coaxed into a circular shape. I’m not sure how I’ll edge it yet, but true to form, I’m thinking it will be I-cord. These little blocks measure about 5″ across and are thoroughly addictive to knit!

Toulon Tote

I need a tote bag to replace the beloved bag that I bought in San Francisco a couple of years ago. I jotted down this idea a while back and I think its time has come.

A tote of this ilk needs to be durable, washable and not at all stretchy so I chose cheap, readily available 100% cotton yarn. It’s an old favorite, Lily Brand Original Sugar ‘n Cream Cotton and it looks like the stuff mops are made of. It is available at Michaels and, I think Joann Fabrics and it’s cheap as chips!

I began by experimenting with how to knit an oval. I wanted to knit the bag’s base in the round and so cast on with Judy’s Magic, the same cast on we often use for toe-up socks. I then devised a system of increases for semi-circular ends and, huzzah! an oval. At present, I’m working away on the herringbone stitch which will form sturdy walls for the bag. I’m planning to use leather handles that I purchased separately.

In other news, I’ve got a couple of projects, three to be exact, in Interweave Knits Summer 2019! I’ve very excited to share these with you in the upcoming week or so. Until then, happy knitting and…

Love,

Cheryl