Msbaum Knits and Crochets

Here is a tip for you when working stripes of multiple colors.

2008-03-28T21:31:00.007-06:00

I finally finished this old project that I started last spring. It actually makes a very cute cover up for a swim suit. It has been finished for quite some time but I just needed to finish some seams and weave in all of the ends. Here is a tip for you when working stripes of multiple colors and you don't or cant carry the ends up the sides which is what I usually try to do most of the time. I made the mistake on this by waiting until I was done crocheting the sweater to weave in the ends. I should have weaved them in as I went along but I didn't and with all of the color changes becuase of the stripes it took forever. So of course anytime I get tired of something I will throw it in the closet and forget about it. Well I actually recruited my daughter's help this week since she was on spring break and she finished weavin in the ends. The pattern if from "Cool Crochet" by Melissa Leapman who is my favorite desginger. It is listed on my Etsy Site as well http://msbaum67.etsy.com/ Here is the finished project on my handy new inflatable mannequin,

Heart Walk

2008-03-28T18:11:00.005-06:00

In June I will be walking to raise funds for the American Heart Association. I work with the Cardiovascular Department at the Hospital and every year we start our fundraising efforts for the walk in June.

It is very fun and usually at work we have a friendly competition between teams to see who can raise the most money. This year the theme of our competition is going to emulate the popular TV game show "Deal or No Deal". At certain intervals the team who is leading in donations will get to play the game with our CEO as the banker. The hospital will be awarding the team some fun prizes.

Just some statistics for you incase you didn't already know. Coronary Heart Disease is still the number one cause of death of people in America and Stroke is the 3rd cause of death. It is also the number one killer of Women in America and actually causes twice as many deaths than all types of cancer combined.

Here are some ways I think you can help to decrease you or your loved ones risks of Heart Attacks or Strokes.

1. Know your #'s - knowing your risk factors such as cholesterol and triglyceride levels are important in helping you determine what you can do to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. The numbers are different for men and women so be sure you keep these numbers in the target range for you. This is a good time right now because many cities will be having their annual health fairs where you can get your cholesterol levels checked at a very small cost. For more information about what your numbers should be click on this link. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4500

2. Learn and become CPR certified - 75 to 80 percent of heart attacks and stroke happen at home. CPR administered immediately after cardiac arrest can double the victims chances of survival. If more people knew CPR more would survive. Be prepared to save a life by logging onto the American Heart Association's Web site and finding out where you can take courses to get certified. Here is the link. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3011764

3. Don't Smoke - Smoking doesn't only cause lung cancer. Smoking is a major cause of heart disease and stroke. As a matter of fact 400,000 people die every year due to illnesses caused by smoking and out of those deaths 45 percent are cardiovascular related. If you need to stop smoking here are a couple of resources you can try. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3048036 Or Click Here

3. Donate to the American Heart and Stroke Association. - Everyone knows that more research, education and awareness is what it takes to cure diseases. The American Heart Association is dedicated to all three. Be Aware and do what you can to take care of yourself and those you love.

I have included a link that will monitor what my Team is doing at the Hospital. And I will continue to post it on my blog until the day of the walk. If you feel so inclined and would like to donate to my team you can click on the link below to make a contribution.

Take Care of Your Heart !!! Click Here to Donate

Mannequin

2008-03-22T16:53:00.005-06:00

I am very excited about my most recent investment. I found a place to purchase inflatable mannequins to display my work on. The prices are extremely affordable. I got this mannequin with arms and the stand for about 42 dollars total after shipping charges. No more horrible pictures of me trying to model my stuff. Besides my daughter hates taking my pictures and she won't model for me either. She actually would make a great model though because she is so thin and cute. But now I can be more creative with my photos. This will help when I get my pattern book put together. Anyway here are some pics of what I have done with it today with the silver cardigan that I designed for my pattern book. This one is sitting on the table without the stand. This is on the stand. Now I can't wait to get my next design finished. This is really fun. It is kind of like playing with Barbies.

New Bag for Crochet Collection

2008-03-15T22:06:00.013-06:00

Today I have started designing a lined bag that I am going to include in my e-book that I am curently in the process of creating the patterns for. It is a tri-color checked pattern. It is going to be about 16 x 14 inches big. Here is a picture of what I have been doing.

My e-book is going to have about 5 patterns. I have 2 cardigans (the one from my previous post) and I think I will have 2 bags but I have not decided what I will use for the 5th pattern. I am thinking something more lightweight like a tank top or vest or something.

Here I am going to post a couple of videos of how I am creating this three color check pattern and how I do the color changes. I think I will include a link to this blog in my e-book to use the video as a tutorial. Here are the videos.

For the color changes you will change color at the end of the row. Whether you are doing a double or single crochet you always bring the new color through the last two loops on the hook.

Click here to watch "Crochet-Tutorial---Color-change"

This next video shows how I create the check pattern. You work one row of each color and repeat the three color sequence until you are at your desired length. I do not like to cut the yarn at the end but instead I carry them up the sides of the work. This way you do not have a bunch of ends to weave in. It is easy to do it with this pattern because the color you need will be at the correct end when working with three colors. If you only had two colors it wouldn't work out as well and then you would either cut the ends or add extra balls of yarn to the work.

Click here to watch "Crochet-Tutorial---Tri--Color-Check-Stitch"

So there are your two tutorials in the Crochet Department today.

Finished new design

2008-03-03T15:52:00.009-07:00

I finally finished my most recent design. It is the long cardigan that I had posted a picture of one of the fronts on my last post. I am now in the process of trying to get a good picture of it and I am working on perfecting the written pattern. I am not sure if I want to try and submit this piece for publishing to a magazine or just offer the pattern myself online. Maybe once I get a really good picture of it modeled I will ask for opinions to see if people would be interested in the pattern. Here is a picture of the completed project but like I said I need to get a better picture before I offer the pattern to anyone. If anyone is checking it out now and has the time please feel free to let me know what you think.

Here is a picture of me modeling.

New Year

2008-01-31T19:29:00.005-07:00

Well here it is February already. I need to try and find more time to do this. I still have many projects going on at once. Work is still pretty crazy right now so I am thrilled to have time to knit and crochet I just am having trouble updating my blog. I just completed another hoodie vest that I have sold and I am in the process of designing a new crocheted cardigan.

I have one front done already. It is hip length with a fitted waist.

My goal with this one is to try and get the pattern out for people to download once I am done and it turns out okay.

Here is a picture of the hoodie vest I have sold.

The main yarn is Dream Baby DK from Plymouth Yarn Company and the strips are ModaDea -Dream. It is really soft to touch. I still need to sew on buttons to the band . The ModaDea is a worsted weight so when I was figuring my guage 2 rows of it in single crochet was the equivalent to one row of double crochet with the DK.

I still plan to get 25 things for charity done as well this year. It is already turning into a very busy year.

Christmas 2007

2008-01-04T19:45:00.005-07:00

Well I finally finished the sweater for my future father inlaw. I finished it just in time for Christmas and even got it shipped to him in time. Here it is.

He said he really liked it. It actually fit him too. My Fiance's sister was very impressed. He says she is an excellent seamstress and knits also. I was hoping to get his dad to model it for me so I could show how it looks on him.

Aside from that Christmas was very nice for us. We spent it in Las Vegas. It was kind of cold there. I didn't win much money, but I didn't spend much either.

Then last weekend before New Years eve my daughter and I went to Grand Junction to visit my parents and brothers there. I even had time on Saturday to visit one of the local yarn stores there called "The Yarn Store". I bought 2 balls of Kertzer On Your Toes sock yarn and some new size 3 double points and spent 50 dollars. My mother thinks I am crazy for spending that much on yarn for some socks that I still have to make myself. She is not a knitter obviously.

We had a great time at her house on Saturday night and the kids and my step dad got some of the greatest slippers. Here is a picture of them:

2007-12-02T10:23:00.003-07:00

I have been working very furiously to get some projects completed before Christmas. So I have not been posting very much. Aside from that I have been very busy at my full time job at the hospital I work for. Then, I made the mistake of taking on a time consuming cardigan for my future father in law. The only reason I decided to do it was because my Fiance is always telling him about the stuff I make and so he said he wanted one. I started it over six months ago but I keep working on other projects putting it off. Now here I am a few weeks before Christmans and I still have a sleeve and a half plus all the blocking, sewing and borders to go. I hope I can get it done without rushing too much. I've already had to rip alot out because I have messed up somewhere in the cable pattern.

Anyway here are some pictures so far.

The back and the almost done sleeve

I will post a picture of it when it is completed.

Finished Sweater for Best Friend's Birthday

2007-10-24T19:03:00.005-06:00

I finished the sweater that I was converting from a hand knit pattern to my Bond machine. Overall it went very smoothly. I made a size medium according to the pattern. It fits me so I am sure it will fit her. We are the same size and only 5 days apart. We both turned 40 this month. I am a couple days past due but since she was out of town for her birthday I think giving it to her a couple of days late wont matter too much to her. Although I prefer to knit by hand as I have previously noted I cant help to get excited about how quick this was to make. It took me less than a week and technically I could have finished it sooner but I didn't work on it for a couple of days because I got distracted with other things. I did the collar, cuffs and bands all by hand and really I do not think it took any more time than if I had done them on the machine because it is very time consuming when latching up ribbing on the machine. Anyway, here it is.

This pattern is very plain and simple which is what made it extremely fast to make on the machine. I think that it would be very easy to add some design elements to it such as some cables or even a fairisle design. If I were to add cables however I would need to add stitches to the pattern in order to make up for the extra pull they would create.

I have so many other projects going on right now, that I have decided that I need to get some of them caught up before I can go yarn shopping again. The only problem with that is that I want to start a project to work on for charity. I am thinking of starting a wool baby blanket to send to the Afghans for Afghans project. It will be crocheted because I am a faster crocheter than I am a knitter.

Decreasing Fully Fashioned on the Knitting Machine

2007-10-17T20:10:00.004-06:00

Here is a another tip for converting hand knitted patterns to your machine. Anytime a hand knit patterns reads like this " K2, K2 together. Knit to last 4 stitches and Sl1 K1, Psso. K2" you are decreasing fully fashioned to shape the garment. This creates slanted stitches and keeps he edge of your garment nicely lined. On the machine what that means is that you will decrease on each end and in order to get it to look right you will place the third stitch from the end of each side on to the adjacent needle.

Then you will need to move the 2 stitches over one to close up the gap.

Here is how the finished piece looks with fully fashioned decreases.

Converting a hand knit pattern to my machine

2007-10-16T19:04:00.002-06:00

I have had my Bond machine for over a year now but have not been using it much. My wonderful Fiance bought it for me last Christmas. I had one several years ago and made everyone I knew stuff for Christmas and birthdays. They got a little tired of hand made stuff I think but I loved to give them to them anyway. They always oohed and awhed over whatever I made.

Here is a sweater I still have from my first machine. I actually wore this a lot but it is slightly out of style now and not quite as flattering to my figure as it used to be.Maybe it will come back in style and I will lose a few pounds. If not I can always give it to my daughter.

Then I broke my machine, so I gave away all of my accessories to a co-worker who also had a Bond machine. I wish I had kept them because now I have to collect them all over again. It is amazing how much all that junk adds up. I had all kinds of tools, an extension kit and a ton of pattern books. Now all I have is the basic machine with just enough of the stuff it came with to do basics.

So I hope my friends and family are ready for more because I have decided to start getting into the machine knitting again. Personally I prefer to hand knit but since the holidays are quickly approaching and I am short on cash but have a huge yarn stash--------guess what?????

For this project I am converting a simple hand knitted cardigan using bulky weight yarn to the machine. So far It is going pretty well. I am planning to give it to my best friend who is 5 whole days younger than me for her birthday which is this Friday so I better get going. I have completed the back the two fronts and have the first sleeve on the machine. I am hand knitting the ribbed bands. Here is what It looks like so far.

This shows how I have inserted my needle to begin the ribbing by hand on the right front. I have already done the back and left front. I prefer to knit the ribbings by hand then on the machine. I guess I think it looks nicer. Here is the sleeve on the machine

The key to converting a simple pattern like this one is basically making sure that your gauge matches the hand knitting instructions. Obviously that means making a swatch first. Once you have that done the rest is pretty simple. You can pretty much follow the hand knit pattern row by row and when you get to the parts that require shaping you should refer to your machine's instruction manual to see how increasing, decreasing and binding off are done. Remember though that in hand knitting you can measure your work as you go but on the machine you can't so it is very important to know how many rows are to the inch from you swatch then keep track of how many rows you have to know how many inches your work is. If you try to measure it from the machine you will be a little freaked out because obviousle the piece is stretched out quite a bit. Once you take it off the machine it will look more like it is supposed to. Then of course depending on the fiber you are using you can block your pieces to the correct measurements.

Well I will post what it looks like when it is done and let you know about any problems I encounter.

New Blog

2007-10-16T09:19:00.004-06:00

Well I have decided to start this blog to document my knit and crochet works in progress. I plan to post pictures and explain how I accomplished creating it. I will be working from patterns but also plan to post my own designs as well. If all goes well and they turn out nice I might actually publish the patterns or make them available to people if they want them. I will start my first blog by posting some pictures of some pieces I have already completed. Some of it I have listed on my Etsy.com site to sell. Most I have either given away to friends or sold already. Here is one of my favorite completed projects. It is adapted from a published pattern book but I changed the stitch and the type of yarn used. I call it my plush hoodie because the yarn is very soft and plush like when worked up. I used Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee Pitter Patter eyelash yarn for this jacket and I just alternated rows with single and double crochet. I sold this white one and was asked to make a second one in sugar plum.

The cutie modeling for me is my 15 year old daughter.

Here are some more of my completed works that I have done by hand.

Red Ribbed Knitted and Blue Stripe Crocheted

Evening Chains Crocheted and turquoise stripes knitted.