Making-the napkin efforts

You may remember that over the years, I've knitted a fair number of napkins.  There's been Wipe, Waves & Stars, and even, simply, the knitted napkins.  All of these work, and they are washable, and some of the bright colors even appeal to my kids.  You can also get some of these patterns here on Loveknitting.com.

However, there's worry about them.  The Professor thinks he will ruin them in the wash (he hasn't) and that he can't dry them. (he can.)  Since they aren't dried in a dryer, they are rough, and that can hurt when cleaning up faces covered in jam, ice cream, or yogurt.  (Ouch, according to a survey of two twins.)

So, I looked at the leftover remnants I'd chosen for knitted tunic pockets, a while back.  I ripped the remnant into 6 napkins.  Two full size, and four cocktail/luncheon size, if you're curious.  And, I eyeballed the hems, folded the fabric over twice, and went to town on my ancient Kenmore sewing machine.  Today?  The table has new, bright, shiny napkins on it.  If my Professor reads this:

Yes, you can wash them.

Yes, you can dry them in the dryer.

Please use them, instead of the tattered old ones. :) 

Here, Sadie demonstrates what the napkins are for.  Note location of napkin, it is good at catching drooling while one dozes off.

After I removed the napkins, Sadie was awake and somewhat put out...but I finally got a great photo of her.  I did have a bigger image of her all stretched out.  She is one long tall drink of water!  However, that photo showed how dusty the area all around my Canadian Production Spinning Wheel is.  Ahem.  This is why one crops photos...and chooses the one with the least dust showing...Guess I need to, uh, dust, and spin on it again someday soon!

knitting for home

I really like knitting (and designing) things for my house. After all, you can only wear so many handknits at once, but your house? Well, your house can "wear" a lot more knitting at once!

For Knit Green, I explored a few concepts that the professor and I have worked on in our home. A while ago, we decided to transition to using only cloth napkins. This wasn't a hard transition as the dirty napkins rarely amount to anything near even a small load of laundry, and we saved money on buying paper napkins. It also saves energy--no trees being made into napkins, no trees cut down and trucked out to be processed, no napkins trucked into the grocery store for us, etc. Yes, everywhere else still uses paper napkins...but we can only make a difference a little at a time!

Of course, (since I'm a knitter), I started coming up with knitted napkin ideas. First came these napkins, and they're for sale on my website as a download. For Knit Green, I broke out of the neutral colors and went for brighter colors! (Note: brighter colors also hide more dirt and stains!) Here are Waves and Stars: Knitted Napkins....another couple of patterns in the book. This is one of those situations where the book says there are 20 patterns, but technically there are two patterns here, not just one at a time, so you're getting more patterns for your money!

If you choose machine washable and dryable yarns (cotton or cotton blends work well), these napkins are work horses. Use and enjoy them, throw them in the wash, and put them right back out on the table. They're fast to knit, too!


Another fast project are these knitted curtains. They are designed to use either a regular curtain rod (cafe curtains) or to use a decorative curtain rod with little knitted button tab loops. The sample curtain is made from a friend's handspun, but any sportweight yarn will do, and the project is fairly flexible. It's ideal for a little simple knitted interior decoration!

I'm hoping to find time to make more curtains like this for my new (old) house. We've got long windows, perfect for this kind of window treatment.

In other news, I'm off to Virginia (near Washington, D.C.) and New York this weekend. I'll be seeing family, hopefully teaching and signing books, and going to Rhinebeck, aka New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, to sign books. I'll try to keep posting about the projects in Knit Green in the meanwhile! If you're going to be at the festival, come by and see me on Sunday, October 18th, from 10-12 as I sign books! Can't wait to see you!

So, do you like knitting for your home? What projects do you like best? Ever considered knitted napkins or curtains?

Where I've been...

This past weekend, I taught at a knitting retreat held at the Delta Marsh Field Station. This is right on the edge of Lake Winnipeg, and it was my first real road trip outside of Winnipeg since we moved here. The field station is actually linked to my husband's department, and I've never felt so lucky to be associated with biologists. The place is gorgeous and I hope I'll get to go back! (it's rented out to other groups as well, so maybe I'll go back with these knitters, too...)

I got to talk about Knit Green and show off some of the projects from the book for the first time. It's a real relief to share these things after keeping these secrets for all this time! The Spire Smock (blocking photo, above) was a big hit and fit my friend Christine perfectly. Many people checked the Waves napkins...this is a prototype for the one in the book. (I used different yarns for the one in the book.)

I also brought this basket, which is featured on the cover of the book. That was fun! Everyone really enjoyed getting to touch the projects as they actually appeared in print.

I'll keep introducing you to these projects and telling you more about them as time passes. In the meanwhile...


I had a conversation with my dad a few days ago about our fireplaces. We have two fireplaces that were originally built to be coal burning. Now they are used for wood instead. Although it is easy to purchase wood for having a fire, it is nothing like what you might expect if you live on the east coast of North America. There are no dead trees in the backyard, just waiting to go into one's woodpile! There's not even a lot of space in many people's yards for a woodpile here. While I live in the city, I thought I'd offer a tour of the prairie as I drove home from Delta Marsh. (no photos of the marsh itself, there's no good place to pull off the road to shoot a photo!)

This is the hunting lodge that was converted into part of the biological field station. It's right alongside the lake, so there are lots of trees here. The lake has some sandy bits, some rocky shore, and a lot of drift wood. Cold weather was coming, so there was a big breeze off the lake and that made waves.

The drive from the field station to the city is about 70 miles or so and an hour and a half. It takes some time to drive on the gravel roads, which require lower speed limits.

I stopped along the side of the road from the field station to take photos of the prairie.

This is what the road looked like, it's built a tiny bit above the actual landscape. These fields were being used for hay; other fields had crops which were already harvested or being harvested. The combines used in field work can shoot great clouds of dust and dirt in the air if the soil is dry--you can see these clouds for miles. It looked a bit like a fire until you got close.

This is what one of the drier fields looked like--there are great shades of color from black earth to dark green to hay color. There are also fields of sunflowers, canola, flax, hemp, and grain.

The farms and field edges often have trees planted as wind breaks. You can tell that the trees were planted there because they are all in straight lines or very intentional clumps! (Trees will seed themselves, but there aren't a lot of forested areas here.)


The yellow car is mine--I was trying to shoot all the angles I could see without blowing away. It was a breezy day.

When I got onto the Trans-Canada highway, speeds increased. Even so, there wasn't a lot of traffic on a Sunday afternoon. So, I was able to look at the window and noticed a train crossing the prairie. If you click on this photo, you'll see how long this freight train is...longer than the photo! I shot the photo through my windshield, while driving home.

On a sunny day, the sky is blue and the clouds skid by...the horizon lasts forever and there is such an open beauty to the landscape! While the city looks like, well, a city--you can drive out just a few miles and see the prairie come back into control again.

More about knitting and a story about our (great big) small world in the next post!